To Your Health: The Senate Republicans’ first effort to repeal and replace Obamacare suffered a crushing 43-57 defeat last night, indicating that whatever finally passes, if anything, it will not be the dramatic repeal and replacement promised in the 2016 election.

Earlier, the Senate voted 51-50 with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaker to advance the health bill for debate and amendments.

In the midst of it all, Arizona Sen. John McCain returned to Washington after being diagnosed and treated for a brain tumor. While one of their most revered members is getting the best care in the world, the Senate is moving to strip healthcare from millions of Americans.

Despite his vote in favor of debate, McCain said he’s opposed to the bill as written. He said on the floor, “Asking us to swallow our doubts and force it past a unified opposition, I don’t think that’s going to work in the end — and probably shouldn’t.”

The Man from Arizona: McCain returned to the Senate with an arcing purple surgical wound over his left eye, a bruised face, and a passion to bring civility and reason back to the Senate. He may have given the speech of his life.

– “I hope we can again rely on humility, on our need to cooperate, on our dependence on each other to learn how to trust each other again and by so doing better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood.

– “Merely preventing your political opponents from doing what they want isn’t the most inspiring work. There’s greater satisfaction in respecting our differences, but not letting them prevent agreements that don’t require abandonment of core principles, agreements made in good faith that help improve lives and protect the American people.”

– “The success of the Senate is important to the continued success of America. This country – this big, boisterous, brawling, intemperate, restless, striving, daring, beautiful, bountiful, brave, good and magnificent country – needs us to help it thrive. That responsibility is more important than any of our personal interests or political affiliations.”

Power Games: The President continued his attacks yesterday on Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation. Trump said, “I think it’s unfair to the presidency.” Speaking at the White House, he issued a veiled threat, “I told you before I’m very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens, time will tell. Time will tell.”

Scouts Dishonor: The Boy Scouts weren’t awarding merit badges to Trump after his blustery and inappropriate speech to thousands of scouts at their annual jamboree in West Virginia.

A statement from the organization says it is “wholly nonpartisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy.”

In other words, they regret inviting the President to speak.

Trump told the boys, “I said, ‘Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?’ Right?” Then he went on to trash Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, and brag about how he won the election. For good measure he promised, “And by the way, under the Trump administration, you’ll be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again when you go shopping. Believe me. ‘Merry Christmas.'”

Tony the Plumber: New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci vowed to reporters yesterday that he’s going to bring a quick end to the fire hydrant of leaks coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “I’m going to fire everybody — that’s how,” Scaramucci told reporters in the White House driveway. “You’re either going to stop leaking, or you’re going to get fired.”

Here’s the fun part. Mooch was firing deputy press secretary Michael Short yesterday, but the news was leaked to a reporter before Short heard about it. Scaramucci said it “really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic.”

Hard Knocks: In a normal world, this might have been the lead story.

  A neuropathologist who examined the brains of 111 deceased National Football League players found that 110 of them had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative disease believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head.

Dr. Ann McKee examined the brains of 202 deceased football players, 111 of whom played in the NFL. The ages of death ranged from 23 to 89.

The research appears to confirm what many people in football still deny, that getting your head banged for years is likely to cause memory loss, depression, and dementia.

McKee found the highest incidence in linemen, running backs, defensive backs, and linebackers — the collision positions.

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