Placing partisan positions to the side, John McCain’s last speech in the Senate:

"We're getting nothing done, my friends. We're getting nothing done," he said, arguing that both sides were to blame for polarizing the process of making laws and funding the government.

"Our deliberations today ... are more partisan, more tribal ... (than) at any time than I can remember. They haven't been overburdened by greatness lately," he said, offering a lesson of civics and civility as his fellow senators unusually packed the chamber and watched from their desks with rapt attention.

"I don't think that is going to work in the end, and it probably shouldn't," he said in remarks that will be tough to swallow for his own party's leadership.

McCain bemoaned the tone of modern politics, suggesting that wild partisanship was paralyzing the country's political institutions and tearing the country apart.

"Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and the television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don't want anything done for the public good -- our incapacity is their livelihood. Let's trust each other. Let's return to regular order."

Possibly the most important line, which Republicans failed to hear;

"We are not the President's subordinates," McCain said. "We are his equals."