Posted on 01/31/2008 8:11:30 PM PST by SmithL
Los Angeles -- GOP presidential candidate John McCain's meteoric rise to front-runner status has made him target of new Internet attacks from his political opponents, but he said Thursday that "I'm not going to waste my time" responding to those bent on reviving some of his past controversies in an attempt to stop his momentum.
McCain, in an interview with The Chronicle on Thursday, reacted to the latest attack - a Drudge Report post Thursday of a Chronicle column published in 2000. The column, by writer C.W. Nevius, quoted the Arizona senator, who was tortured during five years in solitary confinement in Vietnam, as saying, "I hate the gooks. ... I will hate them as long as I live."
The post of the 8-year-old story on Drudge affected The Chronicle's online site, SFGate.com, at one point creating more than 500 downloads a minute, prompting administrators to employ special procedures to make sure the site wouldn't crash. The story first appeared on the Digg social networking site, was then moved to Digg's front page, and was picked up by Drudge. It showed up on the Gate's most-read list even though it was not republished on the Gate home page.
"I'm not going to waste my time," said a visibly tense McCain, when reminded of his quotes in the column. "You can say what you want. I'm proud of my record, my service with my comrades. And if anyone has any criticism of that, I can only say I stand on my record and my Silver Star, my three Bronze Stars and my Distinguished Flying Cross."
"And I'd be glad to send them," he added, "the citation for the Silver Star I received ... and for my conduct in prison. And the comments of my senior ranking officer, Bud Day," he said...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
McCain, as a politician, has been a huge disappointment, but he is a genuine war hero, and for that, I salute him.
Pretty good response for a narcisstic megalomaniac hanging to sanity by a thread. Who’d have thought he’d invoke his “hero status”? Color me surprised.
John McCain Hates everybody who does not worship John McCain.
Is Drudge supporting McCain? This article seems like a cheap shot to me, almost overly so. What would one expect a man who had been tortured to say? I am no fan of McCain by a long shot, but his statements about his barbaric captors will certainly not keep me from voting for him.
Anyone who thinks McCain will apologize for this is a fool for bringing it up. Hell I agree with McCain here.
I can’t fault him for calling those commie bastards “gooks.”
I find it hard to believe that John McCain has done anything in his life that he is honestly proud of.
As for his medals, it is almost impossible to prevent someone from receiving a star once he has been recommended for one.
Yeah, and as Thomas Sowell said, Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.
i dont think there is anything wrong in hating vietnamese communists. i do too.
Mark Levin had good little rant about McCain this evening. I enjoyed it anyway.
>>>Who’d have thought he’d invoke his “hero status”? Color me surprised.
Juan McAmnesty was a POW like Kerry was in ‘Nam.
Didn’t we hear another liberal politician use his “war hero” status as a campaign feature just a few years back??? Of course, I wouldn’t equate that politician’s experience with that of McCain...but...
I don't blame McCain for what he said....
Romney would be better than McCain for the GOP in November.
I’ve been one of McCain’s harshest critics but, on this I would not fault him in the least. If I would have went through half as much as him, Gook would be one of the milder terms I would use.
Well at least we can count on no mass illegal immigration of N. Vietnamese on his watch.
Same here. Of all the many valid reasons he can be attacked as a candidate, this is not one of them. I don’t give a ‘rats azz if he despises “gooks”, he had to take the torture from them, not me. He’s entitled to his hate if he still has it. How would we expect POWs from Japanese POW camps in WWII to feel about them?
I have major issues with McCain, but this isn’t one of them.
Who said that? John Kerry?
Heck, I kind of like that about him; it's about time our enemies trembled in fear of us.
Why does he keep reminding people that he’s a hero. Real heros don’t act like that. They are humble. He is so smug and you’d think after being a POW for five years he’d have developed a humble spirit. I really do not like this guy!!!
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