Gramm-pa McCain's Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Temper 101

By GottaLaff

I've posted about Gramm-pa McCain's temper often. But here we have Gramm-pa's Volatile Temper for Dummeez all in one post, courtesy of "Make-Believe Maverick", The Real McCain, and yours truly:

McCain is sensitive about his physical appearance, especially his height. The candidate is only five-feet-nine, making him the shortest party nominee since Michael Dukakis. On the night he was elected senator in 1986, McCain exploded after discovering that the stage setup for his victory speech was too low; television viewers saw his head bobbing at the bottom of the screen, his chin frequently cropped from view. Enraged, McCain tracked down the young Republican who had set up the podium, prodding the volunteer in the chest while screaming that he was an "incompetent little shit." Jon Hinz, the director of the Arizona GOP, separated the senator from the young man, promising to get him a milk crate to stand on for his next public appearance.

Talk about a "short" temper. See what I did there? Didja catch that short joke? I wonder if he sits on telephone books when he goes to the Early Bird Special at Denny's. Moving on. This next part is the story our own Cliff Schecter broke in his book, The Real McCain:

During his 1992 campaign, at the end of a long day, McCain's wife, Cindy, mussed his receding hair and needled him playfully that he was "getting a little thin up there." McCain reportedly blew his top, cutting his wife down with the kind of language that had gotten him hauled into court as a high schooler: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." Even though the incident was witnessed by three reporters, the McCain campaign denies it took place.

They've tried everything they could to discredit Cliff. Aren't they an honest and transparent bunch? Now imagine what it would be like to have this person's finger on the Big Red Nuclear Button:

In 1992, McCain got into a heated exchange with Sen. Chuck Grassley over the fate of missing American servicemen in Vietnam. "Are you calling me stupid?" Grassley demanded. "No, I'm calling you a fucking jerk!" yelled McCain. Sen. Bob Kerrey later told reporters that he feared McCain was "going to head-butt Grassley and drive the cartilage in his nose into his brain." The two were separated before they came to blows. Several years later, during another debate over servicemen missing in action, an elderly mother of an MIA soldier rolled up to McCain in her wheelchair to speak to him about her son's case. According to witnesses, McCain grew enraged, raising his hand as if to strike her before pushing her wheelchair away.

McCain has called Paul Weyrich, who helped steer the Republican Party to the right, a "pompous self-serving son of a bitch" who "possesses the attributes of a Dickensian villain." In 1999, he told Sen. Pete Domenici, the Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, that "only an asshole would put together a budget like this."

Last year, after barging into a bipartisan meeting on immigration legislation and attempting to seize the reins, McCain was called out by fellow GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. "Wait a second here," Cornyn said. "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 exploded: "Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone in the room." The incident foreshadowed McCain's 11th-hour theatrics in September, when he abruptly "suspended" his campaign and inserted himself into the Wall Street bailout debate at the last minute, just as congressional leaders were attempting to finalize a bipartisan agreement.

At least three of McCain's GOP colleagues have gone on record to say that they consider him temperamentally unsuited to be commander in chief. Smith, the former senator from New Hampshire, has said that McCain's "temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him." Sen. Domenici of New Mexico has said he doesn't "want this guy anywhere near a trigger." And Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi weighed in that "the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded."

McCain's frequently inappropriate humor has also led many to question his self-control. In 1998, the senator told a joke about President Clinton's teenage daughter at a GOP fundraiser. "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" McCain asked. "Because her father is Janet Reno!"

I did an entire post on his vile, hostile, mysogenistic "sense of humor".

Let's not leave out one more instance of Gramm-pa's instability, via The Real McCain:

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.

There you have it, all in one place. Consider this your own, personal WikiGramm-paTemperPedia.

Cliff Schecter, author of "The Real McCain" on Blog Talk Radio Tonight at 9p EST

Cliff's going to be on with my friend Denise from AOL's Political Machine. I'll be there to add, ahem, color.

Tonight at 9p EST. Link here to listen.

John Sidney McCain's "C-word" makes it on to CSPAN

By GottaLaff

Somebody's calling Cliff a lefty liberal lying gossip monger. It must be hard to be such a professionally unprofessional rightie book critic, especially when Cliff's three sources were solid. But, you know, "unnamed sources" are never reliable. Just ask the corporate media whenever they print nearly any White House lie story. The piece in question begins by quoting a caller to CSPAN's Washington Journal. The caller repeated a story that Cliff broke in his book The Real McCain.

There are Internet rumors [Laffy Note: Again, 3 good sources do not a rumor make] abounding about an alleged 1992 episode in which John McCain used the word in an exchange with his wife. The rumor appears to have started with a passage from a book, The Real McCain, by Cliff Schecter who sets out to portray an angry man who is unfit to serve as President of the United States. Schecter is a blogger at the Huffington Post. The passage quotes anonymous sources in a hearsay portrayal of something that happened 16 years ago.

At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c---." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day.

There is no mention of this occurrence in any national news outlets [Laffy Note: McCain did all he could to suppress Cliff's book sales in the U.K., as you'll see below in an e-mail to Cliff from a major U.K. newspaper. Given that precedent, he most likely did the same thing here at home*], even though, according to Schecter the three anonymous sources were reporters. And the quote itself seems so preposterous; it is reminiscent of the Edward Klein creation regarding Hillary Clinton, in which he reported that Bill Clinton said he’d "raped" his wife.

The mainstream media have made it a point to disavow smears against Barack Obama. While the caller to Washington Journal was most likely repeating Internet rumors, it remains to be seen whether the anti-smear mantra will be so lavishly applied to McCain.

After all such an outburst fits nicely in the "short tempered, volatile" box into which the liberal media want to stuff McCain.

Yes, the left wing media, aka Cliff Schecter, is all about the indiscriminate, delusional partisan smearing of John "P.O.W." Sidney CanDoNoWrong. There hasn't been so much as Word One from the liberal press about Obama's "shift to the center" or his middle name, let alone how he and his wife are unpatriotic Muslim terrorists who hate their own country, right? It's all about the unrelenting discrediting of McCain, day in and day out. Why, the media have been all over that gambling story like Lieberman on J Sid.

*Cliff's story, via an e-mail to him from a newspaper that was going to promote his book. This is verbatim, except for a couple of edits for privacy purposes:

Hi Cliff,

As far as I know it is dead here, so feel free to talk to your people. I would prefer if you didn't reveal my name or publication, but you should know what happened. The reason for being this is that my editor would not be pleased.

I called McCain's people for comment. They told me that first that this was all off the record, that you were a super liberal with a hate streak, that you were known to make outlandish comments like this and that you were not a reliable source. Then they said that they would prefer that we didn't go with anything, just to protect the Senator's image from false information. Because this was just a crazy, gossipy piece of journalism anyway.

I then asked for a quote for the article, as my editor needed something from them. They said, "Well, I know you aren't going to like this" and with a little almost smirk from them:

"This book is just tabloid trash," said [...] a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign. "The fact that it is even being reported speaks to the sad state of journalism today."

I further asked if the Senator was going to pursue legal action for libel, and she said no, and would not cite a reason why. Well constructed comment from them if I ever heard one. Would make a lot of news editors reconsider.

Let me know if you need anything,

[E-mailer's name, major U.K. newspaper]

If you go here , you'll find a link to the video of the CSPAN Washington Journal caller in question. I couldn't get it to load, but Paddy could. She said it was hilarious. The fun starts at about 2:54:36.

The Real McCain Makes The Daily Show

Somewhere my publisher is smiling...

John Sidney McCain could get fighting mad. One can only hope

By GottaLaff
Keep your fingers crossed that John Sidney McTemper gets fighting mad:

Openly frustrated by what they see as an ongoing double standard in the press’s treatment of his campaign, Sen. John McCain and his aides have been aggressively denouncing unfavorable stories as “smear jobs” and “scurrilous attacks,” while the candidate himself has launched a series of stinging attacks on Sen. Barack Obama.

Awww, is J Sid pouting? The press doesn't like him? (?!?) Peoples is writing honest meany-weany books about him?

For McCain and his small coterie of fiercely loyal advisers, it’s a fine line to walk. [...] But in doing so, they’ve already raised the question of whether McCain can maintain his upbeat warrior image while running an uphill race against an opponent for whom the candidate can barely conceal his contempt, and covered by a press the campaign sees as biased. [...] Plainly, McCain wants to cast Obama as a naïf who lacks the experience needed to lead the country.

J Sid, you mega-experienced, wizened rascal, you. That very argument may work against you:

In highlighting one of Obama’s chief vulnerabilities, though, McCain highlights two of his own. While voters may hesitate before turning the White House keys over to a candidate just a few years removed from debating highway speed limits in the Illinois state Senate, experience is a double-edged sword at a time when the overwhelming majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction — just ask Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. What’s more, it’s always dangerous for McCain, who would be the older person ever elected president, to remind voters of his age.

Let's not beat around the bush any longer. Here's the twist:

What may be even more perilous for McCain, though, is Obama’s ability to get under his rival’s skin.

And get under his skin Obama shall!

Thanks to his own personal tenacity and a weak GOP field, McCain’s penchant for the putdown never really backfired during the primary.

Now, with more attention and less margin for error, McCain may need to watch his quick tongue.

You've all heard of "like father, like son"? Try this: Like candidate, like campaign:

It’s not just been the candidate himself who has turned feistier, but his campaign as well — especially toward the press. [...] In responding to what they perceive as unfair pieces, they’ve unabashedly criticized the same press that McCain once jokingly called his “base.” [...] “We can’t sit back when the press clearly, clearly is giving Obama very favorable coverage and very little tough scrutiny and not sort of call fouls when they happen,” added Black.

I feel sooo, sooooooo bad for J Sid! The press has been just awful to him! Calling him a hero! Ignoring Cliff's C-Word story! Not covering Cliff's scoop on how J Sid punched out a fellow Congressman! Bad media! Bad, bad media! They're grounded!

Yet some McCain sympathizers are concerned about how their candidate is presenting himself.

“It lacked graciousness, lacked civility and it was small,” one friend of McCain said in describing the candidate’s attacks on Obama on the night the Democrat made history by becoming the first African-American to run as a major party’s nominee.

McCain and his campaign are unhappy, this source suggested, at where they find themselves heading into the general election. [...]

Still, Obama hasn’t completely avoided the temptation to frame McCain as temperamental.

Responding to McCain’s lengthy and searing rebuttal on the veterans’ bill last month, Obama said: “These endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts from the McCain campaign do nothing to advance the debate about what matters to the American people.”

It's only June. J Sid has to contain himself for 5 more months. I have no doubt the Obama camp will do everything they can to highlight McHostile's feistier side.

The New York Review of Books likes Cliff Schecter

By GottaLaff

Be proud, Cliffy!

Schecter, a freelance liberal commentator who contributes frequently to The Huffington Post, recounts, for the first time, a tale—confirmed to him, he writes, by three Arizona reporters—that in 1992, after Cindy McCain teased her husband about his thinning hair, McCain snapped at her, in front of the reporters and two staffers: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c—." One wonders if on such occasions she reminds her husband who it was that made his political career possible. She has recently called the idea that her husband has a temper "a concoction."

The second issue is more substantive and deals with McCain's policy record—both his votes as a senator and the positions he's taking as presidential candidate. In many matters, it is far from consistent. Schecter's The Real McCain chronicles, in fine-grain detail, McCain's votes and positions, showing that they often seem to reflect hypocrisy, flip-flopping, and pure expediency, rather than the political courage for which he is famous.

Go, Cliff! We need your words to become part of the general election mantra.

One more thing: After seeing what Cliff can dig up, I wouldn't want to be on his bad side. Wink.