Little late to tell us this now that he's on his way to the nomination, don't you think, MSM?
"Famed McCain temper is tamed; Calmer side now on display" by Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | January 27, 2008
Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who has known Senator John McCain for more than three decades, on Wednesday endorsed Mitt Romney for president.
Cochran said his choice was prompted partly by his fear of how McCain might behave in the Oval Office.
"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine," Cochran said about McCain by phone. "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
McCain's run-ins with other Republican senators are legendary. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa said in an interview that he was so upset by a McCain tirade that he didn't speak to him for two years. Grassley, who said he will make no endorsement, nonetheless says McCain is the most qualified among the five GOP candidates to be president.
Two other senators, both of them backing McCain, said that McCain's anger is directed at trying to change Washington, and that they had no concerns about his temperament.
McCain is the first to admit that he has been unpopular with some senators, saying, "I didn't win Miss Congeniality." From McCain's perspective, however, the disdain for him is a result of his determination to eliminate billions in farm and ethanol subsidies and ending what he calls "pork barrel" spending.
McCain supporters say the senator more recently has tamed his temper as well as his political style. For example, they note that while McCain in 2000 said some religious conservative leaders were "agents of intolerance," the senator made a point of courting some of the same leaders in this campaign.
But questions about McCain's temper continue to be raised. In Thursday's debate, McCain was asked whether his temper was an "impediment" to being president.
"I don't," McCain said, pretending to be angry before breaking into a grin. "I've been able not only to make close friendships and warm ones over the years, but also across the aisle" with Democrats.
Earlier last week, explaining his relationship with some senators, McCain said emotions can run hot when he takes on proposals from Republicans such as the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.
"Is [the Senate] a club where we're all pals and friends? No," McCain said on his campaign bus. "But it is a club where they're used to kind of helping each other out." By going after his colleagues' spending proposals, "you're going to earn enmity, no doubt about that," he said.
While Cochran disagrees with McCain about cutting farm programs, he said his concern about McCain is "not about subsidies" but temperament. Cochran said that he has known the McCain family from the days when they lived in Mississippi and got to know McCain well in the 1970s when Cochran served in the US House and McCain served as a naval liaison in Congress. He said he has seen McCain's temper fly too often in committee hearings or on the Senate floor, although he said he hasn't seen an example in the last several years.
During McCain's 2000 campaign, his hometown newspaper, The Arizona Republic, published an editorial saying that the country should be warned about McCain's "volcanic" temper.
Oh, greeeeeeeeeeat!!!!!! Just what we fucking need!
What we need, readers, is RON PAUL!!!!!!!!!
A man who ISN'T ANGRY and is ABOUT PEACE!
In his memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain provided what appears to be his fullest explanation of the subject, acknowledging his temper but writing that he sometimes uses it strategically.
Oh, that's nice. McCain the MANIPULATOR!!!!!
"My temper has often been both a matter of public speculation and personal concern," McCain wrote. "I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public's. I have regretted losing my temper on many occasions. But there are things worth getting angry about in politics, and I have at times tried to use my anger to incite public outrage. I make no apologies for that. . . . When public servants lose their capacity for outrage over practices injurious to the national interest, they have outlived their usefulness to the country."
Grassley, the Iowa Republican, has often tangled with McCain over ethanol subsidies, which Grassley views as crucial and McCain has said he sees as wasteful. But the hottest disagreement took place when the two got into a heated argument in 1992 over McCain's contention that a former prisoner of war in Vietnam had been a traitor. McCain peered closely into Grassley's face as he shouted an obscenity at his Iowa colleague, according to reports published over the years.
Grassley, asked whether the reports were accurate, acknowledged the feud and said: "We didn't speak for a couple of years. Then, one time, he came up to me and said, 'Chuck, we need to talk,' and we have had friendly conversations ever since."
Despite the past tensions and the disagreement over ethanol, Grassley said he has deep respect for McCain's military background.
"I might have concerns [about McCain] but as I look at five [Republicans] still running for president, even though McCain and I have disagreements . . . McCain is the most qualified to be president," Grassley said, while stressing he was not making an endorsement. "I say that because I know him."
McCain's feuds with other senators have surfaced regularly. McCain has written about how he screamed at Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama an inch away from his face after Shelby voted against the 1989 nomination of John Tower as defense secretary. "I was madder than hell when I accosted him . . . and the incident is one of the occasions when my temper lived up to its much exaggerated legend."
While that encounter happened years ago, the Washington Post reported a similar outburst by McCain last year when he shouted an obscenity during a confrontation with Senator John Cornyn, the Texas Republican, over an immigration bill.
But he's been a cool-head for several years, they told us above!
Pffffffttttt!!!!
In addition to irking some senators in his fights against farm subsidies and earmarks, McCain has upset many conservatives by his support for campaign finance laws that place limits on special interest money. McCain's investigation of Indian gaming practices helped land tribal lobbyist Jack Abramoff in jail and also presented information that proved embarrassing for a number of Republicans.
And what about the Keating Five S&L scandal McCain was up to his ears in, MSM?
McCain often notes that his early complaints about the way former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld handled the Iraq war earned him rebukes from Republicans, but his view became accepted and Rumsfeld resigned.
Senator Susan M. Collins, a moderate Maine Republican, said she decided to support McCain based on his character even though she disagreed with him on some issues.
"People tend to feel very strongly about John both ways," Collins said. "Those of us who admire and like him stand by him 100 percent and think so highly of him. . . . Those whom he has tangled with in the past, some of those people bear grudges and feel strongly against him in the opposite direction."
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who has endorsed McCain, said, "I always tell him he reminds me of an uncle of mine. You could get into an argument with him, then you'd see him a half-hour later and it was like nothing happened."
Lieberman stressed that "it is not the kind of anger that is a loss of control. He is a very controlled person."
Oh, Joe the Jew endorses McCain so he must have the Zionist's stamp-of-approval!
The Globe and parent New York Times endorsements of the McCain wouldn't have anything to do with the MSM coverage of them man, right, readers?
Just like it has nothing to do with the exclusion of Ron Paul, right?
"McCain accuses Romney of wanting to set deadline for Iraq withdrawal"
So McCain still gets a friendly article, with a lie about Romney headlined to boot -- from the paper that ENDORSED McCain!
OBJECTIVE and UNBIASED my ass!!!!!
Check that Ron Paul coverage, too, readers!!
Bye, AmeriKan MSM (as I take another grain of salt).
