Did McCain really perform the Sandinista snatch?
WASHINGTON _ This is one of those stories that cuts both ways for a candidate.
On one hand, John McCain has the reputation as a fellow with a short fuse, something not altogether desirable for the commander of the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal.
On the other hand, more than a few voters might smile (clap?) at the prospect of McCain, who turns 72 next month, grabbing a revolutionary by his Guyabara shirt and yanking him out of his chair.
First, we must consider the source for this tale, fellow Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, with whom McCain isn’t close. (McCain has criticized Cochran’s penchant for earmarked pet projects in appropriation bills; Cochran has said that the prospect of McCain as the GOP nominee sends a chill down his spine.)
Anyway, Cochran says that on a congressional trip to Nicaragua in 1987, he saw McCain grab an associate of Daniel Ortega, then the leader of the lefty Sandinista National Liberation Front (and now president of Nicaragua), and lift him out of this chair.
Here is what Cochran told the Sun Herald of Biloxi (you can listen to it), a home-state paper. “McCain was down at the end of the table … and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don’t know what attracted my attention, but I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he had thought about him or whatever …
More Cochran: “I don’t know what he was telling him but I thought, ‘Good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission.’ I don’t know what had happened to provoke John, but he all of a sudden got mad at the guy … “
What did McCain have to say about Cochran’s recollections at a news conference this afternoon while on a trip to Colombia:
“That was 21 years ago. I think that’s simply not true.
“I made many, many trips, and had many, many meetings with the Sandinistas and other leaders of central America. There is no, nothing ever — I must say I did not admire the Sandinistas very much. . .”
A reputation that is almost entirely contrived. Funny how having a temper was seen as a fine quality for other popular leaders like FDR, MacArthur, Truman, JFK and Johnson, just to name a few, but is now suddenly a horrible trait.
So Thad Cochran, bless his enormous ego and barely existant political stature, thinks it’s important now to tell the media about something that he supposedly witnessed John McCain do over 20 years ago? I wouldn’t question the motive or timing of that at all.
The unasked question however is this: Would we prefer as President someone who 20 years ago felt compelled to directly confont a representative of a smarmy, murderous dictatorship and who has since compiled decades of real foreign policy experience, or do we want someone who’s sole claim to fame was as a marginally effective “community organizer” who even today has virtually no experience doing anything other than running for public office?
He was just making sure that talking to enemies couldn’t be construed as appeasement (as in the new GOP meaning of appeasement; where talking is appeasement as opposed to the old meaning of actually doing a favor)
It’s pretty well-known that McCain still has an anger problem, getting angry at reporters on a number of occasions, calling his wife names, etc. It’s hard for me to say this but in some ways it might be even more scary having McCain in control of the U.S. military than Bush.
No Adam, it isn’t well known. It’s rumored. Like the rumor that Barack Obama still uses drugs and has two illegitimate children. Do you believe everything you read in the papers or on Daily Kos?
What Bill left out of this blog piece was the statement from the other senator who was at the same meeting who said the incident never happened. Why should we believe Cochran?
Why should we be surpirised that McCain shows a decided lack of judgment and an anger problem, it’s his life. Geez, if we elect McCain, I might even miss Bush! Ugh!
Amazing!
John McCain, who cannot even raise his hands above his head did that to a communist? He is already a legend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
Having a temper is never a fine quality. What kind of person would think such a warped thought?
Well if the media was really interested in good research and reporting, someone would have tracked down others in that meeting, would be very simple to do, and see if either Cochran’s or McCain’s side of the story could be backed up. And if anyone recalls Cochran speaking about the incident back then 21 years ago.
Now I am wondering who’s lying, or maybe McCain did it and do not recall, that is also a possibility if he suffer certain mental conditions that could be brought on from being a torched prisoner of war.
Should said, “tortured” prisoner of war, not torched.
Hey, why hasn’t McCain released ALL his medical records, eh?
C’mon yappers, what is McCain hiding? PTSD? anger problems? Substance abuse? ECT? Abuse issues? Did McCain jump off the top off his house trying to commit suicide, overdose on Valium, go partially deaf from oxycontin abuse or need Viagra?