Whenever John McCain (R-Ariz.) sits down for an interview, one can only guess which McCain will show up. Will we see the self-effacing McCain, who jokes about his own propensity to say “stupid” things? Or maybe the maverick McCain, who’ll take subtle shots at the GOP? Or how about the above-the-fray McCain, who gives lip service to principle and statesmanship?<\/p>\n
Lately, as McCain’s political standing wanes, I’m afraid we’re stuck with dickish McCain<\/a>.<\/p>\n McCain angrily ripped into the House bill passed last week that set a timeline for withdrawal, calling it the “most shameful that I have seen in the 24 years I have been in Congress,” and describing Democrats as “more interested in guided tours of the Capitol building than caring for American military men and women that are on their tours overseas.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Look, well-intentioned people can debate the efficacy of withdrawal timelines and redeployment, but to argue on national television that the Democratic plan doesn’t take care of the troops is transparently ridiculous. McCain clearly knows he’s lying, but doesn’t seem to care.<\/p>\n Indeed, no one can seriously accuse the Dems’ policy of undercutting the troops — it fully funds the military<\/a> (and then some), including resources for redeployment. It also includes $3.5 billion for improving military hospitals and veterans hospitals, and provides additional funds for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, or severe burn scarring. On the issue of readiness, if Bush chooses to violate the military’s basic guidelines and send U.S. soldiers into combat without proper training and equipment, he must sign a waiver and explain his actions.<\/p>\n Democrats are “more interested in guided tours of the Capitol building” than the troops? A serious person just doesn’t make that kind of comment. I don’t want to read too much into it, but it’s the kind of remark that raises questions about McCain’s temperament. But I think it’s equally fair to use similar language to describe the other<\/em> frontrunner for the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n In 1998, for example, McCain thought it was funny to publicly mock Chelsea Clinton<\/a>, calling her “ugly.” It was hardly an isolated incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues and exploded at colleagues,” said former Senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican who served with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee and on Republican policy committees. “He would disagree about something and then explode. It was incidents of irrational behavior. We’ve all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I’ve never seen anyone act like that.”<\/p>\n McCain’s outbursts often erupted when other members rebuffed his requests for support during his bid in 2000 for the Republican nomination for president. A former Senate staffer recalled what happened when McCain asked for support from a fellow Republican senator on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.<\/p>\n “The senator explained that he had already committed to support George Bush,” the former Senate staffer said. “McCain said \u2018f*** you’ and never spoke to him again.”<\/p>\n “He had very few friends in the Senate,” said former Senator Smith, who dealt with McCain almost daily. “He has a lot of support around the country, but I don’t think he has a lot of support from people who know him well.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It seems like the kind of thing that might catch up with the guy as the campaign unfolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever John McCain (R-Ariz.) sits down for an interview, one can only guess which McCain will show up. Will we see the self-effacing McCain, who jokes about his own propensity to say “stupid” things? Or maybe the maverick McCain, who’ll take subtle shots at the GOP? Or how about the above-the-fray McCain, who gives lip […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nNewsweek’s Jonathan Alter recently wrote a column<\/a> about whether Rudy Giuliani, with his “ridiculously thin skin and mile-wide mean streak,” has the “temperament” to be president. National Review added<\/a>, shortly thereafter, that “there is so much evidence in the public record that he is a total jerk,” that Giuliani is in for a rough ride.<\/p>\n