There was a pilot in the Flying Tigers who was nicknamed "Enemy Ace" because he had a knack for crashing airplanes and walking away from the wreck.
Senator McCain is Saint John McCain now because he's safely dead and the Leftists can safely praise a Republican who won't do anything against them any more. To the Leftists, any dead Republican is not an enemy any more but one of the "Honored Dead", as Humphrey Bogart's character put it in "To Have and Have Not." The only reason Warren Beatty is a pallbearer is to assure himself the man they called racist in his campaign ten years ago is safely dead.
The use of the word "but" usually indicates that everything preceding it in a sentence is a lie.
E.g.:
"I believe in Freedom of Speech, but". . .
"I support the Second Amendment, but". . .
--Randy