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Sen. John McCain: I Don't Have a Temper
A report by NewsMax.com's Ronald Kessler detailing Senator John McCain's legendary temper has caught the eye of McCain's homestate paper, the Arizona Republic. Dan Nowicki, the paper's assistant editorial page editor, citing Kessler's NewsMax.com article, suggested real evidence of the senator's temper exists. But he quickly noted that McCain has given varying accounts of his temper tantrums – and he even denied he gets angry. Nowicki said McCain needs to "get his stories straight as he campaigns for the 2008 GOP White House nomination." Nowicki reports that Kessler, NewsMax's chief correspondent and author of the recent best-selling "Laura Bush – An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady," is reviving worries about Sen. John McCain's temper and is raising questions about whether he is emotionally fit to serve as president. [Editor’s Note: Check out this FREE offer for Ron Kessler’s "Laura Bush” – Go Here Now.] Kessler, Nowicki reported "interviewed former Capitol Hill associates of McCain as well as former Arizona Republic publisher Pat Murphy, former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson and Judy Leiby, a former aide to Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz." "As portrayed by the mainstream media, McCain is an engaging war hero, a man of political moderation positioned between the left and the right," Kessler wrote. "But to insiders who know him, McCain has an irrational, explosive side that make many of them question whether he is fit to serve as president and be commander in chief. 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."
Story Continues Below "I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues and exploded at colleagues," Kessler quoted former Senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican who served with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee and on Republican policy committees, as saying. "He would disagree about something and then explode. It was incidents of irrational behavior. We've all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I've never seen anyone act like that."
Kessler continued: "When people have come forward to relate their bizarre experiences with McCain, only minor 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 than presidential infidelities." McCain's temper, Nowicki recalls, "is not news. He even addressed the topic himself at a March 18, 2004, forum at Scottsdale Community College. Scottsdale Republic general manager Michael Ryan had asked McCain what the biggest misconception about him was." McCain's answer? "I hope that the misconception is, but I'm not sure it's a misconception, that I have a very bad temper. I have had a bad temper in my life. In my early days in office, I displayed that temper, always to my detriment. Every time I ever lost my temper, I regretted it since then."
"And every day, when I get up, I say, 'You're not going to lose your temper today,'" McCain continued. "And I can excuse it by saying 'I feel passionately about issues, my sense of right and wrong and justice, and all that,' but there's no reason for it. Because you lose your effectiveness when you lose your temper in politics. "So I would hope that there's not that belief, but, still, on occasion, I will lose my temper and, every time that I've done it, it has harmed more than helped."
But Nowicki compares that McCain admission to another statement he made just this year. In a March 20 Sun story, Nowicki recalls McCain telling the Baltimore Sun he never had a temper tantrum. McCain told the Sun: "Just because someone says it's [his temper] there, you would have to provide some corroboration that it was. Because I do not lose my temper. I do not. "Now, do I speak strongly? Do I feel frustrated from time to time? Of course. If I didn't, I don't think I would be doing my job. "But for someone to say that McCain became just angry and yelled or even raised my voice or – it's just not true. It's simply not true. And so these rumors continue to circulate about – quote – temper. They're going to have to find some concrete examples of it, and they aren't there."
Editor's note:
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