Posted on 01/29/2008 5:26:22 AM PST by teddyballgame
The Romney camp frames the memo as a top-10 list of McCain’s “attacks” on Republicans. It could also be called “10 instances over the last eight years when McCain got angry or lost his cool.”
But you can...you can do an intelicheck on him and have him pay for the background check. But if you really trust him, this isn't necessary. If you don't you wouldn't sell a firearm to him anyway, would you?
I recently sold a S&W .38 special for $1 (gift) to a 76-year-old buddy who is a former Maryland sheriff's deputy. I have no qualms about him but I STILL had him sign over a statement that I had notorized proving we had made the transaction just in case the firearm was ever stolen from his home.
The point of McCain's bill (which if you read my profile, I am iffy about) is to keep firearms out of the hands of crimnals (at least that is what he wrote me in a letter that was not autopenned). I believe him; and I also know that the aim or the NRA is to keep firearms from criminals.
I have been a member of the NRA wince I was 14-years-old--I recently turned 61. I own more than 50 firearms (one is a Barrett) and McCain does not scare me the least about my ownership. Romney's background, record, and zeal against "guns of unusual lethality" however does!
MCCAINS TOP 10 TEMPER TANTRUMS:
1# Defending His Amnesty Bill, Sen. McCain Lost His Temper And “Screamed, ‘F*ck You!’ At Texas Sen. John Cornyn” (R-TX). “Presidential hopeful John McCain - who has been dogged for years by questions about his volcanic temper - erupted in an angry, profanity-laced tirade at a fellow Republican senator, sources told The Post yesterday. In a heated dispute over immigration-law overhaul, McCain screamed, ‘F— you!’ at Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who had been raising concerns about the legislation. ‘This is chickens—stuff,’ McCain snapped at Cornyn, according to several people in the room off the Senate floor Thursday. ‘You’ve always been against this bill, and you’re just trying to derail it.’” (Charles Hurt, “Raising McCain,” New York Post, 5/19/07)
# In 2000, Sen. McCain Ran An Attack Ad Comparing Then-Gov. George W. Bush To Bill Clinton. SEN. MCCAIN: “I guess it was bound to happen. Governor Bush’s campaign is getting desperate, with a negative ad about me. The fact is, I’ll use the surplus money to fix Social Security, cut your taxes and pay down the debt. Governor Bush uses all of the surplus for tax cuts, with not one new penny for Social Security or the debt. His ad twists the truth like Clinton. We’re all pretty tired of that. As president, I’ll be conservative and always tell you the truth. No matter what.” (McCain 2000, Campaign Ad, 2/9/00; www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHoXkCprdL4)
# Sen. McCain Repeatedly Called Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) An “A**hole”, Causing A Fellow GOP Senator To Say, “I Didn’t Want This Guy Anywhere Near A Trigger.” “Why can’t McCain win the votes of his own colleagues? To explain, a Republican senator tells this story: at a GOP meeting last fall, McCain erupted out of the blue at the respected Budget Committee chairman, Pete Domenici, saying, ‘Only an a–hole would put together a budget like this.’ Offended, Domenici stood up and gave a dignified, restrained speech about how in all his years in the Senate, through many heated debates, no one had ever called him that. Another senator might have taken the moment to check his temper. But McCain went on: ‘I wouldn’t call you an a–hole unless you really were an a–hole.’ The Republican senator witnessing the scene had considered supporting McCain for president, but changed his mind. ‘I decided,’ the senator told Newsweek, ‘I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.’” (Evan Thomas, et al., “Senator Hothead,” Newsweek, 2/21/00)
# Sen. McCain Had A Heated Exchange With Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) And Called Him A “F*cking Jerk.” “Senators are not used to having their intelligence or integrity challenged by another senator. ‘Are you calling me stupid?’ Sen. Chuck Grassley once inquired during a debate with McCain over the fate of the Vietnam MIAs, according to a source who was present. ‘No,’ replied McCain, ‘I’m calling you a f—ing jerk!’ (Grassley and McCain had no comment.)” (Evan Thomas, et al., “Senator Hothead,” Newsweek, 2/21/00)
# In 1995, Sen. McCain Had A “Scuffle” With 92-Year-Old Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) On The Senate Floor. “In January 1995, McCain was midway through an opening statement at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing when chairman Strom Thurmond asked, ‘Is the senator about through?’ McCain glared at Thurmond, thanked him for his ‘courtesy’ (translation: buzz off), and continued on. McCain later confronted Thurmond on the Senate floor. A scuffle ensued, and the two didn’t part friends.” (Harry Jaffe, “Senator Hothead,” The Washingtonian, 2/97)
# Sen. McCain Accused Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Of The “Most Egregious Incident” Of Corruption He Had Seen In The Senate. “It escalated when McCain reiterated the charges Oct. 10 in a cross-examination, calling McConnell’s actions the ‘most egregious incident’ demonstrating the appearance of corruption he has ever seen in his Senate career.” (Amy Keller, “Attacks Escalate In Depositions,” Roll Call, 10/21/02)
# Sen. McCain Attacked Christian Leaders And Republicans In A Blistering Speech During The 2000 Campaign. MCCAIN: “Unfortunately, Governor Bush is a Pat Robertson Republican who will lose to Al Gore. … The political tactics of division and slander are not our values… They are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country. Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right.” (Sen. John McCain, Remarks, Virginia Beach, VA, 2/28/00)
# Sen. McCain Attacked Vice President Cheney. MCCAIN: “The president listened too much to the Vice President . . . Of course, the president bears the ultimate responsibility, but he was very badly served by both the Vice President and, most of all, the Secretary of Defense.” (Roger Simon, “McCain Bashes Cheney Over Iraq Policy,” The Politico, 1/24/07)
# Celebrating His First Senate Election In 1986, Sen. McCain Screamed At And Harassed A Young Republican Volunteer. “It was election night 1986, and John McCain had just been elected to the U.S. Senate for the first time. Even so, he was not in a good mood. McCain was yelling at the top of his lungs and poking the chest of a young Republican volunteer who had set up a lectern that was too tall for the 5-foot-9 politician to be seen to advantage, according to a witness to the outburst. ‘Here this poor guy is thinking he has done a good job, and he gets a new butt ripped because McCain didn’t look good on television,’ Jon Hinz told a reporter Thursday. At the time, Hinz was executive director of the Arizona Republican Party. … Hinz said McCain’s treatment of the young campaign worker in 1986 troubled him for years. ‘There were an awful lot of people in the room,’ Hinz recalled. ‘You’d have to stick cotton in your ears not to hear it. He (McCain) was screaming at him, and he was red in the face. It wasn’t right, and I was very upset at him.’” (Kris Mayes and Charles Kelly, “Stories Surface On Senator’s Demeanor,” The Arizona Republic, 11/5/99)
# Sen. McCain “Publicly Abused” Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL). “[McCain] noted his propensity for passion but insisted that he doesn’t ‘insult anybody or fly off the handle or anything like that.’ This is, quite simply, hogwash. McCain often insults people and flies off the handle…. There have been the many times McCain has called reporters ‘liars’ and ‘idiots’ when they have had the audacity to ask him unpleasant, but pertinent, questions. McCain once… publicly abused Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.” (Editorial, “There’s Something About McCain,” The Austin American-Statesman, 1/24/07)
“I might even like a bully in the White House, just out of pure spite.”
This bully spent his bile and spite attacking CONSERVATIVES.
Look at the top 10 list - Falwell, Cornyn, Domenici, Grassley, Bush, etc - he attacks conservatives and GOP ‘friends’ (and poor staffers) but never the Democrats.
“McCain might be just the man if he didn’t direct his ire at least as often at the good guys as at the bad.” - always at the good guys, never at the Democrats.
We have a poisonous snake in the house. Why would we make the snake king of the house?
I really doubt that the McCain camp will act in kind.
They could though.
Like the time Romney cursed a blue streak, during some pre-Olympic traffic problem.
But then again Romney is stupid enough to say he doesn’t ever get angry.
He says he gets ‘intense.’
That guy is such a bullsh*ter.
And people believe his tall tales.
“Where is Romney on the Second Amendment?”
Romney believes in the individual RKBA as assured by the 2nd Amendment.
Moreover, as this thread shows, Romney has the temperment to safely carry a concealed weapon.... Not sure we could say the same about the hot-head McCain.
"# Sen. McCain Repeatedly Called Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) An “A**hole”, Causing A Fellow GOP Senator To Say, “I Didn’t Want This Guy Anywhere Near A Trigger.” “Why can’t McCain win the votes of his own colleagues? To explain, a Republican senator tells this story: at a GOP meeting last fall, McCain erupted out of the blue at the respected Budget Committee chairman, Pete Domenici, saying, ‘Only an a–hole would put together a budget like this.’ Offended, Domenici stood up and gave a dignified, restrained speech about how in all his years in the Senate, through many heated debates, no one had ever called him that. Another senator might have taken the moment to check his temper. But McCain went on: ‘I wouldn’t call you an a–hole unless you really were an a–hole.’ The Republican senator witnessing the scene had considered supporting McCain for president, but changed his mind. ‘I decided,’ the senator told Newsweek, ‘I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.’” (Evan Thomas, et al., “Senator Hothead,” Newsweek, 2/21/00)"
No doubt the budget was laden with pork.
I agree with McCain on this one.
One of the best Senators on spending is on McCain’s side.
Tom Coburn.
Newsweek article from 2000 starts off ...
“Of the 55 republicans in the U.S. Senate, only four support John McCain for president. Most of the rest—39 in all, with two more signing on last week—back George W. Bush. Why can’t McCain win the votes of his own colleagues? To explain, a Republican senator tells this story: at a GOP meeting last fall, McCain erupted out of the blue at the respected Budget Committee chairman, Pete Domenici, saying, “Only an a—hole would put together a budget like this.” Offended, Domenici stood up and gave a dignified, restrained speech about how in all his years in the Senate, through many heated debates, no one had ever called him that.” ...
Ah yes, the old McCain “It’s my way or the highway” approach we all know and love. /sarc
http://www.aznews.us/fxxx_you_mccain’s_unstable_temper_raises_more_doubt.htm
WASHINGTON (By Ralph Vartabedian and Michael Finnegan, LATimes) May 22, 2007 — An angry, profane exchange between Sen. John McCain and another Republican senator last week prompted a new round of questions Monday about whether McCain’s legendary temper is becoming a liability to his campaign for the presidency.
In a private meeting just off the Senate floor, McCain (R-Ariz.) got into a shouting match Thursday with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) over details of a compromise on immigration legislation. Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy with his campaign to take part in the negotiations, prompting McCain to utter “F… you.”
McCain spokesman Danny Diaz acknowledged Monday that a “spirited exchange” had taken place, but said news reports had exaggerated its intensity.
McCain’s political handlers have plenty of experience in explaining his salty language and strident attacks. His temper has ranged far and wide, directed at other members of the Senate, congressional staffers, government agency chiefs, corporate chieftains, military officers and teenage campaign volunteers.
McCain has shouted at people for any number of reasons, including errors of judgment, disagreements on public policy and even how to set up a podium.
“In McCain’s world, there aren’t legitimate differences of opinions,” said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which differs with McCain on some issues. “There is his way and there is evil. That is how he approaches issues. That is one of the reasons for conservative nervousness about him.”
His temper has been an issue for years.
In the 2000 presidential bid, McCain was dubbed “Senator Hothead” by Newsweek. That year, he won endorsement from only a few Senate colleagues. His frequent attacks and volatile personality were most likely to blame. “McCain notes,” which offer apologies after heated words, are held by many members of Congress.
McCain has written about what he describes as his impatience. “Although I try to refrain from being intentionally discourteous, I am demonstrative in showing my displeasure. I am often impatient and can speak and act abruptly,” he wrote in “Why Courage Matters” in 2004.
In a 1999 interview with The Times, McCain said: “I do everything I can to keep my anger under control. I wake up daily and tell myself, ‘You must do everything possible to stay cool, calm and collected today.’ “
One bureaucrat who felt McCain’s wrath was former NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, who was summoned by McCain in 1999, not long after a $125-million probe crashed on Mars because of confusion over the use of English and metric units. McCain’s Senate Commerce Committee had oversight over NASA.
“McCain went ballistic the moment Goldin walked into McCain’s office,” said a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because he still worked in the government arena. “He was shouting and using profanity, saying he was sick of NASA’s screw-ups. It went on for a few minutes, and then he kicked Goldin out of the office.”
Goldin started walking down the hallway but was called back to the senator’s office by a McCain aide. “When he came back in, McCain started yelling at Goldin all over again. And then McCain kicked Goldin out a second time before he ever said a word,” the source said.
Julian Zelizer, a history and politics professor at Boston University, said the spectacle of a senator getting into “yelling matches with his colleague” undermines the leadership image that McCain has sought to project.
“It is an issue he needs to be cautious with,” Zelizer said.
Until the latest flap, McCain had managed in the last six months to quell the image that he is easily angered. On Monday, his campaign took sharp exception to the entire matter, characterizing it as political theater.
“If something is written every time members of Congress and leading politicians, behind closed doors, try to get the other’s attention, and tempers flare, you’d run out of ink,” said John Weaver, McCain’s chief campaign strategist.
Nonetheless, the issue was used effectively in the 2000 primaries by opponents who planted rumors that McCain was unstable because of his years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Although some former POWs have had psychological problems, McCain came through the experience in good psychological shape, Navy doctors say.
As for his temper, “John McCain is John McCain,” said Dr. Bob Hain, director of the Navy’s Robert E. Mitchell Center for Prisoner of War Studies.
Democrats said McCain was in deep trouble on the matter.
“Apparently, John McCain’s do-anything-to-win campaign strategy doesn’t include anger management classes,” quipped Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.
“We have had eight years of cowboy diplomacy, and McCain is even more of a cowboy than the current president,” said Roger Salazar, a Democratic political consultant who worked for John Edwards in 2004. “The public wants somebody who is strong but can sit across from allies and adversaries without lunging at them.”
Probably what I say.
Being right is no excuse for being a jerk, and McCain has proven himself to be an ill-tempered foul-mouthed out-of-control jerk on many occasions when he is wrong and the target is a decent, honorable conservative who is right (great example being Senator John Cornyn who got his ire over the amnesty bill).
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=286415470273826
Election 2008: John McCain claims his temper is not an issue. “I don’t think I would have the support of so many of my colleagues if that were the case.” Who are these supportive colleagues?
Related Topics: Election 2008
They certainly do not include Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. Over the weekend, he announced he cannot endorse his colleague for the White House and is endorsing Gov. Mitt Romney instead.
“The thought of him being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Cochran said. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”
Perhaps Cochran can’t appreciate the maverick in McCain. But the same can’t be said of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a noted reformer and friend of whistle-blowers. Grassley said in a recent interview that he was so upset by a McCain tirade that he didn’t speak to him “for a couple of years.” McCain got in his face and shouted an obscenity at him.
(Grassley says they’re on friendly terms now and thinks McCain has the qualifications to be president. But he stressed he’s not making an endorsement.)
McCain admits he’s rubbed some senators the wrong way. But he explains that what they really don’t like is his tough stand against farm subsidies and “pork barrel” spending.
If that were the case, we’d say more power to him. But it seems McCain goes ballistic on anyone who disagrees with him. And he’s not just verbally abusive, but physically threatening.
He got in the grille of Sen. Richard Shelby — an inch away from the Alabama Republican’s face — after Shelby voted against the 1989 nomination of John Tower as defense secretary. “I was madder than hell when I accosted him,” McCain admits, half boasting.
“In his world, it’s very difficult to have a simple policy disagreement,” said American Conservative Union chairman David Keene. “Everything becomes personal. His position is right, and everyone else’s is basically evil.”
Lest anyone think McCain, now 71, has mellowed, he got in another altercation just last year. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, got full frontal McCain over an immigration bill, according to reports in Roll Call and the Washington Post.
McCain, who supported amnesty for illegals, accused his colleague of making a “chickensh**” argument to try to sink the bill. “F*** you!” McCain shouted at Cornyn during the negotiations. “I know more about this than anyone else in the room.”
“Idiot” and “liar” are among his other favorite put-downs. McCain’s “finger-in-your-eye” style has alienated even allies on the Hill.
He quips he “didn’t win Miss Congeniality.” But outside of wielding the gavel of the Senate Commerce Committee, he didn’t win any top leadership posts, either, despite 25 years in Congress. In effect, the abrasive lawmaker was marginalized throughout his career.
While good leaders don’t always win popularity contests, that’s not exactly a vote of confidence for somebody who’s now running to lead the free world.
McCain has burned a lot of bridges. If he does not work well with others in the Senate, including among those in his own party, how can he count on bringing them on board his executive agenda? How can he run a Cabinet and bring together international coalitions?
To be sure, there’s an upside to anger when dealing with the kind of enemy we now face.
We appreciate that McCain, who was dead right about the surge, is willing to stare down “radical Islamic extremists.” We want them to fear our commander in chief. It helps if they believe he’s got his finger on the button, so to speak, as the Soviets believed with President Reagan.
Difference is, Reagan didn’t have an itchy trigger finger. His recently published diaries confirm that he skillfully used firm diplomacy behind the scenes. We’re not so sure McCain can control his bellicosity.
Reagan disarmed Mikhail Gorbachev with his charm. When McCain says he looks Vladimir Putin in the eye and all he sees is “a K, a G and a B,” it may not be just a line he uses in debates.
We have our issues with McCain, but none more important than presidential temperament. Is he fit for the highest office in the land?
On Iraq, Romney, Rudy, Huck, all are supportive of winning there.
Where McCain is different is his backstabbing on so many domestic signature issues ... This is what McCain stands for:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjUzOGY0ODA1YzBmNjFhOWE5NWU0OTY5NTZiOGNhOGQ=
The McCain domestic record is a disaster. To say he fought spending, most particularly earmarks, is to nibble around the edges and miss the heart of the matter. For starters, consider:
McCain-Feingold — the most brazen frontal assault on political speech since Buckley v. Valeo.
McCain-Kennedy — the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history.
McCain-Lieberman — the most onerous and intrusive attack on American industry — through reporting, regulating, and taxing authority of greenhouse gases — in American history.
McCain-Kennedy-Edwards — the biggest boon to the trial bar since the tobacco settlement, under the rubric of a patients’ bill of rights.
McCain-Reimportation of Drugs — a significant blow to pharmaceutical research and development, not to mention consumer safety (hey Rudy, pay attention, see link).
And McCain’s stated opposition to the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts was largely based on socialist, class-warfare rhetoric — tax cuts for the rich, not for the middle class. The public record is full of these statements. Today, he recalls only his insistence on accompanying spending cuts.
As chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, McCain was consistently hostile to American enterprise, from media and pharmaceutical companies to technology and energy companies.
McCain also led the Gang of 14, which prevented the Republican leadership in the Senate from mounting a rule change that would have ended the systematic use (actual and threatened) of the filibuster to prevent majority approval of judicial nominees.
And then there’s the McCain defense record.
His supporters point to essentially one policy strength, McCain’s early support for a surge and counterinsurgency. It has now evolved into McCain taking credit for forcing the president to adopt General David Petreaus’s strategy. Where’s the evidence to support such a claim?
Moreover, Iraq is an important battle in our war against the Islamo-fascist threat. But the war is a global war, and it most certainly includes the continental United States, which, after all, was struck on 9/11. How does McCain fare in that regard?
McCain-ACLU — the unprecedented granting of due-process rights to unlawful enemy combatants (terrorists).
McCain has repeatedly called for the immediate closing of Guantanamo Bay and the introduction of al-Qaeda terrorists into our own prisons — despite the legal rights they would immediately gain and the burdens of managing such a dangerous population.
While McCain proudly and repeatedly points to his battles with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had to rebuild the U.S. military and fight a complex war, where was McCain in the lead-up to the war — when the military was being dangerously downsized by the Clinton administration and McCain’s friend, former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen? Where was McCain when the CIA was in desperate need of attention? Also, McCain was apparently in the dark about al-Qaeda like most of Washington, despite a decade of warnings.
If McCain found out you were a conservative against amnesty, he’d call *YOU* by some unprintable 4 letter words.
– In a “heated dispute over immigration-law overhaul” last year, McCain screamed at Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “F— you!” He added, “This is chickens- - - stuff. … You’ve always been against this bill, and you’re just trying to derail it.” [5/19/07]
I have no doubt that is his goal, to keep guns from criminals and mentally unstable people. I have no doubt Romney’s goals are to keep guns from criminals and mentally unstable people.
I just don’t think McCain is materially better on the issue than Romney at this point.
What I really can’t understand is why anyone thinks this kook is an honorable man. An honorable man does not behave this way. Yes, he’s a war hero, but that’s no license to behave like a scoundrel.
Hence the second sentence of my post.
It shows whether a particular name is in a database of people whom the government wishes to disarm. It does not show whether the name the buyer gave has any relation to the buyer himself, nor does it provide any way of telling whether someone is in the database for constitutional or unconstitutional reasons.
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