McCain Temper Uncontrollable
Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
McCain has an incredibly short fuse and a violent temper
McCain says “Fuck you, you are a shit head”
"People who disagree with him get the f--- you," said former Rep. John LeBoutillier, a New York Republican who had an encounter of the way too close kind with McCain when he was on a POW task force in the House. LeBoutillier was openly tape recording the conference. McCain got the idea that LeBoutillier was covertly tape recording him.
"Are you wired up?" LeBoutillier quoted McCain as asking. "Of course not," LeBoutillier said. "Prove it," McCain said. LeBoutillier said he lowered his pants, apparently satisfying McCain that he was not taping him.
"He is a vicious person," LeBoutillier said. "Nearly all the Republican senators endorsed Bush because they knew McCain from serving with him in the Senate. They so disliked him that they wouldn't support him. They have been on the hard end of his behavior."
"I think he is not fit to be president," said former congressman LeBoutillier.
Another former senator who asked to be kept anonymous remembers comments made at a Republican policy lunch. McCain had harsh words with another senator who disagreed with him.
"McCain used the f-word," the former senator said. "McCain called the guy a ‘sh--head.' The senator demanded an apology. McCain stood up and said, ‘I apologize, but you're still a sh--head.' That was in front of 40 to 50 Republican senators. That sort of thing happened frequently."
Profanity and Punching: McCain’s Hallmarks
If McCain gets that angry at his own party members, imagine the crap some Democrats have had to deal with. Democrat Marty Russo had a nasty encounter with McCain when McCain was in the House, according to the Atlantic Monthly. "Seven-letter profanities escalated to 12-letter ones and then to pushes and shoves, before the two were separated," according to the report..
In 1993, the Boston Globe reported that McCain "came across the Senate floor and, while mocking [Ted] Kennedy, told him to ‘shut up,' according to those in the chamber. "A stunned Kennedy returned the comment, telling McCain to ‘shut up' and ‘act like a senator.'"
In 1992, Robin Silver and Bob Witzeman met with McCain at his Phoenix office to discuss the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. McCain went ‘crazy’.
"He slammed his fists on his desk, scattering papers across the room," Silver said. "He jumped up and down, screaming obscenities at us for at least 10 minutes. He shook his fists as if he was going to slug us."
Silver had the guts to point out that his behavior was inappropriate, "He apologized and was contrite," Silver said.
Actually, there is an ‘in’ joke among Senators about McCain and his sorry-ass notes. The “McCain Notes” as they are called are a collection of apology letters that McCain has written after losing his temper and verbally attacking people who get in his way. Even inside the folds of the Republican party, there are those who know that someone so out of control should not have the authority to unleash nuclear weapons.
Hilarious "Angry John McCain Song" - Insults Asians, dumps first wife
McCain Makes Bush Look Appealing
His temper is *SO* out of control, that Josh Marshall, the founder of Talking Points Memo, stated that his family would be safer with Bush in office another four years than with McCain. He said, “Morally, the case is pretty straightforward. McCain really is a hothead. Everyone seems to agree that's true on an interpersonal level. But I don't really care about that. I don't care who he swears at. But over his time in the senate and now as would-be president, he's shown a tendency always to jump to the most confrontational and military-based responses to foreign events, often to almost ridiculous levels. And I think because of that temperament, he's fallen in with and become a useful tool of the DC neoconservatives who view acting crazy and getting people killed as a matter of principle.
I've watched the Bush presidency very closely. I've watched McCain closely for the last decade or so. And I either know or know a decent amount about a lot of the people advising him on foreign policy. And in terms of the physical safety and future of my wife and two sons, let alone the country, I would much prefer four more years of the Bush presidency to a McCain presidency."
McCain calls reporter a jerk
John McCainspoke to Elisabeth Bumiller, (New York Times reporter) along with the rest of the media assigned to travel with him the week of July 20.
"What do you want, you little jerks?" McCain said to Bumiller and those behind her, as the press surged forward on the "Straight Talk" Boeing 737 on July 21.
McCain Threatens to destroy careers
Jim Abbott, the supervisor of the Coronado National Forest, recalled a time in 1989 when he had a run in with McCain. Abbott had ordered a halt to construction of University of Arizona telescopes at the top of the mountain because of a concern of the environmental impact of the project on the red squirrel. McCain then asked to meet with Abbott and said, "If you do not cooperate on this project, you'll be the shortest-tenured forest supervisor in the history of the Forest Service."
McCain did call later to apologize. Construction did proceed but only after McCain backed legislation to create an exemption for the project from the Endangered Species Act and other existing laws.
Uses Threats to Manage People
A longtime member of Senator Dennis DeConcini's staff, Judy Leiby, worked on veteran's issues and had a difference of opinion with McCain on a number of issues over the years.. When DeConcini announced he was retiring in 1994, McCain visited his office.
"I was standing around talking to about a half a dozen postal workers I'd worked real closely with," Leiby recalled. "And McCain came in. He walked down the line, shaking hands, and he ignored me. And one postal worker said, ‘Do you know Judy Leiby?' He said, ‘Oh, yeah, I know her.'" It was obvious to Leiby that McCain was trembling with anger.
"You could tell he was so angry, he was white," she said. "He turned back to me and said, ‘I'm so glad you're out of a job, and I'll see that you never work again.'"
Doesn’t know when to shut up
Many senators and fellow Republicans hesitate to speak openly about what McCain’s personality is really like. Bob Smith described his behavior reluctantly. A former Republican senator listed Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and Pete Dominici, fellow Republican senators, as being among those who had been subjected to McCain's outbursts, but none of them agreed to be interviewed about it..
"A presidential candidate is not supposed to talk at length and on the record about the rules he broke or the strippers he dated, or the time he arrived so drunk that he fell through the screen door of the young lady he was wooing," Time magazine reported in a Dec. 13, 1999 profile of McCain. "The candor tells you more than the comment, and reporters sometimes just decide to take him off the record because they don't want to see him flame out and burn up a great story."
"National reporters may genuflect, but local journalists cringe at the thought of covering McCain, better known in Arizona for his short temper, refusal to take calls, and attempts at media manipulation than for the ‘straight talk' he doles out . . ." a Playboy article reported in February 2000.
