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Vanity Fair Tiptoes Around McCain's Explosive Temper Ronald Kessler WASHINGTON -- In its February issue, Vanity Fair questions whether Sen. John McCain has the temperament to be president, but the magazine ignores any serious examples of his out-of-control temper revealed in recent NewsMax articles.
"Will John McCain's Temper Derail Him?" asks a teaser on the cover of Vanity Fair.
"McCain's temperament may be the single most discussed element of his life and career," the story by Todd S. Purdum says. "In high school, his nicknames were ‘Punk' and ‘McNasty,' and a survey of senior Capitol Hill staffers by Washingtonian magazine last summer ranked McCain second for ‘Hottest Temper' in the Senate . . ."
Conduct Unbecoming The story cites a well-publicized nasty letter the Arizona Republican wrote to Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat, for "what amounted to little more than a misunderstanding over how Obama intended to proceed on the issue of lobbying reform — something that could have been cleared up with a chat in the corridor." Instead, the Vanity Fair story says, "McCain let loose, writing Obama the kind of missive, lacerating in its sarcasm, that Harry Truman used to compose late at night, but then prudently put in a drawer."
Story Continues Below
The story in Vanity Fair with Demi Moore on the cover is the first in the mainstream media to raise the question of whether McCain's temper could undercut his bid to become president in 2008. But the story never cites the damaging, concrete examples of McCain's explosive temper cited by NewsMax.com stories that ran on July 5 and Aug. 30.
Those who have dealt with him on a daily basis say McCain's out-of-control temper raises questions about whether he is fit to have his finger on the nuclear trigger, so states the July 5 NewsMax article, "McCain's Out-of-Control Anger: Does He Have the Temperament to Be President?"
Nowhere is that sentiment stronger than in the Senate, where McCain has few friends or supporters. In fact, when McCain ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2000, only four Republican senators endorsed him. "I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues and exploded at colleagues," former Sen. Bob Smith told me for the article. A New Hampshire Republican, Smith served with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on a select committee on POWs missing in action, and on Republican policy committees. "He would disagree about something and then explode," Smith said. "[There were] incidents of irrational behavior. We've all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I've never seen anyone act like that." 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.
More Bouts of Nastiness "The senator explained that he had already committed to support George Bush," the former Senate staffer said. "McCain said f*** you and never spoke to him again." "He had very few friends in the Senate," said former Sen. Smith, who dealt with McCain 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." Senators are leery of speaking on the record about what McCain 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 have encountered McCain's outbursts, but none of them agreed to be interviewed on the subject. "People who disagree with him get the f*** you," said former Rep. John LeBoutillier, a New York Republican who had an encounter with McCain when he was on a POW task force in the House. "I think he is mentally unstable and not fit to be president." Andrew H. "Andy" Card Jr., President Bush's former chief of staff, told me he has observed McCain's outbursts. "Sometimes he was pretty angry, but I felt as if he was putting on a show," Card said in an interview for an Aug. 2 NewsMax article, "Andy Card: I Have Seen John McCain's Anger." "I don't know if it was an emotional eruption or it was for effect," Card said. Democrat Paul Johnson, the former mayor of Phoenix, saw McCain's temper up close. "His volatility borders in the area of being unstable," Johnson has said. ""Before I let this guy put his finger on the button, I would have to give considerable pause." In 1992, Robin Silver and Bob Witzeman, both medical doctors, met with McCain at his Phoenix office to discuss the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. At the mention of the issue, McCain erupted. "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." After Silver pointed out that his behavior was inappropriate, "He apologized and was contrite," Silver said. Indeed, senators joke among themselves about their collection of "McCain Notes"— apologies McCain sends after he has unleashed a tirade. Many have thought that McCain might have developed his out-of-control temper while a POW. But as described in his military records, McCain's anger pre-dated his captivity. In one of the documents, Dr. P.F. O'Connell, a Navy psychiatrist who examined McCain in 1973, said McCain thought he had made progress in controlling his anger during his captivity. "He learned to control his temper better," the evaluation said, according to the Aug. 30 NewsMax article, "John McCain's Temper Preceded Vietnam."
McCain's office did not respond to my requests for comment about his anger. However, when I appeared on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show "The Situation" to discuss NewsMax's disclosures about McCain's anger on July 6, Carlson said on the air, "We got a call earlier tonight from McCain's Senate office suggesting that we not do this story. [They were] annoyed about it."
Intimidation Tactics That hint at intimidation is one reason why major media outlets may think twice about revealing what they know about McCain's temper, which is widely whispered about in Washington. With the exception of NewsMax, no media outlet has been willing to suffer the possibility of lack of access to a candidate who could wind up in the White House by reporting the full story of McCain's dark side. In the past, McCain has alternately denied being prone to angry outbursts or admitted he struggles to control his anger or has claimed he only becomes angry over waste and abuse. But those who have experienced his anger say it does not erupt over policy issues or waste and abuse. Rather, his outbursts manifest themselves when peers disagree with McCain or tell him they won't support him. In his 2002 book, "Worth the Fighting For: A Memoir," McCain said, "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." But the Baltimore Sun quoted McCain on March 20 as denying he had a temper. "Just because someone says it's there, you would have to provide some corroboration that it was," McCain said. "Because I do not lose my temper. I do not . . . for someone to say that McCain became just angry and yelled or raised my voice or — it's just not true," McCain said. Just two days earlier, however, McCain said at a forum in Scottsdale, Ariz., "I have had a bad temper in my life." Saying he displayed his temper in his early days in office, McCain said, "Every time I ever lost my temper, I regretted it since then." If McCain has trouble keeping his story straight, it has not detracted from his glowing press coverage. The media routinely portray McCain as an amiable war hero, a man of moderation and compassion. In part because McCain gives reporters access and charms them with his apparent openness, and in part because they relish his periodic criticisms of President Bush's policies and of the FBI and CIA, the media have largely ignored McCain's anger issues and a string of inappropriate, offensive comments he has made. For example, only a few news outlets, like the Phoenix New Times in Arizona and the National Journal, ran an Associated Press story reporting McCain's 1998 joke suggesting that Chelsea Clinton was ugly and that Janet Reno and Hillary Clinton were lesbians. "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" McCain said at a GOP fund-raiser in Washington. "Because Janet Reno is her father." That joke was as offensive as Sen. George Allen's recent reference to a student of Indian descent as a "macaca," a genus of monkey, but because of the blackout by the media, few voters ever heard about it. In discussing Allen's "macaca" comment, the media referred to inappropriate remarks by other political candidates but never mentioned McCain's 2000 statement, "I hate the gooks," a racial epithet for Asians. McCain later apologized and said he was referring to his wartime captors. When McCain recently said it "grieves me so much" that the American people were "led to believe that this [the invasion of Iraq] would be some kind of a day at the beach," 177 news outlets ran the story. The Washington Post referred to McCain's criticism in 10 stories. The New York Times referred to it in three stories. But only two media outlets — MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume — referred to an AP story quoting McCain's March 2003 prediction on Hardball that U.S. forces would "absolutely, absolutely" be greeted as liberators.
‘Volcanic' at Times In a major exception to what it called the "fawning" treatment the national media give McCain, the Arizona Republic, in a front page article and separate editorial in October 1999, said it wanted the nation to know about the "volcanic" temper McCain had unleashed on top state officials. "McCain often insults people and flies off the handle," the editorial said. Moreover, he is often "sarcastic and condescending." The paper said that it was "time the rest of the nation learned about the John McCain we know in Arizona." The editorial said there is reason to "seriously question" whether McCain has the "temperament" to be president. Over the years, when people have come forward to relate their bizarre experiences with McCain, only minor local publications or the foreign press have run their accounts. The favored treatment is reminiscent of the way the press turned a blind eye to John F. Kennedy's dalliances — except that voters have far more need to know about evidence of instability in a candidate than about infidelities. The article in the February issue of Vanity Fair suggests why reporters love McCain. "What's so different about — and potentially risky for — McCain is his perpetual willingness to think out loud, unplugged and unfiltered," the article says. While the article raises the issue of McCain's temper and whether it could derail his chances in 2008, it never cites any examples. As the Aug. 30 NewsMax article pointed out, the letter to Barack Obama cited by Vanity Fair was an example of MCain's nastiness, not his out-of-control temper. "From what I can tell, McCain's temper is not so much worse than that of many other politicians I have known, from Rudy Giuliani to Bill Clinton," Purdum limply concludes in Vanity Fair. "He wastes no time on niceties. Each time I met him for a trip or an interview, he barely bothered to shake my hand . . . Nothing pathological there."
The Big Question So far, no one has claimed that McCain's temper has manifested itself openly in front of a reporter such as Purdum writing a story about him. Nor does McCain's temper compare with Clinton's or Giuliani's. McCain displays what colleagues describe as vicious, irrational behavior when they disagree with him. Clinton and Giuliani get mad at subordinates in a more controlled way when they think they have not done their jobs. The question on the minds of many who know him well is not whether McCain spends time on niceties. Instead, the question is whether he has the character and temperament one would expect of anyone being hired for a job — particularly president of the United States. So far, the mainstream media have not seen fit to let voters make up their own minds.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of NewsMax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via e-mail. Go here now.
© NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
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