McCain has a temper and doesn’t play well with others. From Cliff Schecter’s new book:
Perhaps the most remarkable story of McCain’s temper involved Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi. Two former reporters covering McCain, one who witnessed the following events and one who confirmed the facts provided by the first, relayed it to me as follows: In 2006, the Arizona Republican congressional delegation had a strategy meeting. McCain repeatedly addressed two new members, congressmen Trent Franks and Rick Renzi, as ‘boy.’ Finally, Renzi, a former college linebacker, rose from his chair and said to McCain, “You call me that one more time and I’ll kick your old ass.” McCain lunged at Renzi, punches were thrown, and the two had to be physically separated. After they went to their separate offices, McCain called Renzi and demanded an apology. Renzi refused. Apparently this posture made McCain admire him, as they became fast friends.
Of course, McCain’s camp denies these types of allegations.
Sen. John McCain’s defenders are blasting a new biography that claims the White House hopeful once hurled the most vile of epithets at his wife, Cindy.
Democratic strategist Cliff Schecter claims in “The Real McCain” that the presumptive GOP nominee uttered the shocking slur in front of aides and reporters while campaigning for the senate in 1992.
“At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, ‘You’re getting a little thin up there,'” Schecter writes. “McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, ‘At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you [cunt].'”
McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker brands the book “trash journalism” and tells us, “The story is completely fabricated.”
But some of his flare-ups are well-documented.
During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources — both Democrats and Republicans — who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room.
At a bipartisan gathering in an ornate meeting room just off the Senate floor, McCain complained that Cornyn was raising petty objections to a compromise plan being worked out between Senate Republicans and Democrats and the White House. He used a curse word associated with chickens and accused Cornyn of raising the issue just to torpedo a deal.
Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said to McCain. “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.”
McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).
“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn’t be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.
Cornyn’s office declined to comment on the incident.
His Senate colleagues have certainly noticed his erratic behavior.
“There would be a lot of people who would have to recalibrate their attitudes toward John,” said Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), a supporter of Mitt Romney’s who has clashed with McCain…
“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), also a senior member of the Appropriations panel, told the Boston Globe recently. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”
“John was very rough in the sandbox,” said former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who is outspoken in his opposition to McCain’s candidacy. “Everybody has a McCain story. If you work in the Senate for a while, you have a McCain story. . . . He hasn’t built up a lot of goodwill.”
I think McCain’s temperament is going to become his single biggest obstacle to winning the election. You can’t go around calling people names and throwing punches at people and think it won’t come out in the glare of a presidential campaign.
. . . about it being an obstacle. But it won’t be an obstacle unless the mainstream media reports it. And, seeing as they have practically been fellating McCain for the past eight years, I don’t foresee them breaking any negative news about him.
Then it’ll be up to us to have a couple of followers to go to his evcnts, tape them and wait for his “macaca moment.” It’ll come along.
That’s assuming McCain’s campaign events are open to the public, of course.
I’ve got to agree. From what I’ve seen in the past few decades… the weirder the flaws the more sure it is that the guy will get elected… Reagan and his narcolepsy during meetings, Clinton with his IS IS IS speeches, Bush with his macho cluelessness. A horrible temper can be seen as macho and tough. (Look at McCain..isn’t he kewute when his little veins pop up in his neck giggles ..etc)
Someone should be following him, like the Lieberman Kiss Float, to goad and bait McCain into blowing up.
It shouldn’t be too hard. If I had the time, I’d tail him and ask him every day why he called his rich second wife a cunt, why he left his first wife after her car accident, why he hugs Bush. Just about anything inflammatory and obnoxious. I’m sure I could get him to flip out.
McCain would want to kill you if he had any exposure to you at all.
Oh, I’m sure. I’d be Bugs Bunny to his Yosemite Sam, or Woody Woodpecker to his Wally Walrus.
Good thing he’s fat, old, and his arms don’t work, because he’d want to catch and strangle me.
Feh, if you think I can be “incredibly obnoxious” now, wait until after the dust settles on our side of the aisle and I can devote my full firepower to McCain instead of just farting in Clinton’s general direction.
. . . now you made me spit my tea all over the computer screen, I’m laughing so hard!
I’m seriously wondering whether McCain will have a stroke at some point during the race or if he gets to be pres. That much anger can NOT be good for the blood pressure. It’s a serious issue, as well, as we all KNOW that after a short while people will start up “Poking Mr. McCain” games just to see him pop his cork.
Maybe we could make a Huggy Bear float.
I just had the misfortune of working w/a client who verbally bashed his wife using the same word as McCain – in front of me. it was an astonishing relationship to watch in action but what I came away with in the long run that the bashing was a mechanism to avoid taking responsibility for his own actions.
Each one of Cliff’s examples points to a McCain inadequacy which he covers up by attacking anyone pointing out where he screwed up. He incorporates Bush’s position of never admitting to a wrong with Rove’s predilection of crushing the messenger.
Let’s see. McCain combines denial with anger to avoid facing his shortcomings. This is kind of an explosive mixture for a guy who wants to be president. Imagine a hard day at the White House and MCCain with a bad cold, flu or respiratory infection. Might not be a good time for the American Empire. Or for planet Earth for that matter.
Down the drain with John McCain.
I’ve read speculation that McCain’s temper is the result of being a POW. But, apparently, his meanness goes back to childhood. In highschool, his nicknames were: Punk, McNasty and N*gger Ass Kicker. And some Hillary supporters say they’d rather vote for McCain instead of Obama… Maybe they need to realize he’s not a moderate, bipartisan, sweet ol’ grampa.
And if my husband called me “cunt” — and I had all the money — he’d be my ex the next day. But, you know, maybe it’s a term of endearment between them and privately she calls him “asshole.”
N*gger Ass Kicker?
I hadn’t heard that one. Are there any verifiable stories about how he got it?
Get the feeling that systematic humiliation is the Republican way of dealing with people?
No doubt InSane McCain will be on some heavy medication (and being fed lines via backpack radio) during debates.
Because it would be near impossible for the MSM to cover up McCain charging across the stage to attack Obama.