McCain Loses Cool With NYT Reporter

NEW ORLEANS -- Republican Sen. John McCain, showing a flash of the temper he is known for, repeatedly cut off a reporter Friday when asked whether he had spoken to Democratic Sen. John Kerry about being his vice president in 2004.

"Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that, that I had a conversation," McCain told the reporter. "And you know it, too. No. You know it, too. No. You do know. You do know."

The reporter, Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, was following up on a question McCain had answered at a campaign event Friday morning in Atlanta. Asked if he might consider Kerry as a running mate, since Kerry asked him in 2004, McCain said no.

Afterward, on a campaign flight, Bumiller said she looked in the Times' archives and that McCain had denied talking with Kerry in a May 2004 story.

McCain interrupted, saying that everyone knew he had a private conversation, and he kept interrupting as she tried to follow up. McCain clearly was irate.

"I don't know what you read or heard of, and I don't know the circumstances," McCain said. "Maybe in May of '04 I hadn't had a conversation."

Did he recall the conversation? "I don't know, but it's well-known that I had the conversation. It's absolutely well-known by everyone. So do you have a question on another issue?"

Asked again about the conversation, McCain said, "No. No. Because the issue is closed, as far as I'm concerned. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows it in America."

Could he describe the conversation? "No, of course not," McCain said. "I don't describe private conversations. Why should I? Then there's no such thing as a private conversation."

McCain is known for having a temper and has been dubbed "Senator Hothead" by more than one publication.

Comments

[zigzag1]

If the press would stop fawning over this "hero" they could do their job and find out exactly what McCrazys relationship is with lobbyists like Vicki Iseman (who?) and the communication industry. He's as dirty as he was with Charlie Keating years ago.

[gonavy]

Well, as I see it, they did the job you wanted them to. And they made fools of themselves and lost the respect of millions of people.

[Democrab]

There will be debates, bwwwaaahahaha.

Hillary or Obama will get under his skin so bad he'll explode into a billion little right wings.

[transendentilist]

"...explode into a billion little right wings." Priceless.

[Average]

If this is the example of a 'hothead' I've got to see something that makes me believe it. This is NOT a hothead. If you think so, you don't have a clue what a real hothead is.

[baylaw73]

Seriously. So, he was annoyed, and then was clip and rude. He's a dick , "everybody in America knows it." But "hothead?" I need to see something closer to a 10, this was a 6, maybe.

[rwe]

Damn , you prograssives are trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory... Hillary and Barack are tearing at each other with name calling, racism, sexism, .... Barack is a vacuous tent revivalist , who has no plicy and is thin skinnedand Hillary is being cannabalized by everyone and is a socialist with so much baggage ... And this is what you come up with against McCain?

[gonavy]

I know what you mean. Months ago we thought this was going to be a tough battle. But now it's looking like a shoe in. Go McCain.

[spiffarino]

This is the tip of the iceberg. Mr. Straight Talk has a lot of explaining to do about Keating, lobbyists, adultery, and his flagrant hypocrisy.

No, he didn't lose it in the video above the way he's famous for doing behind closed doors, but it's clear that Bumiller opened him up. He can control his temper for a while, but get ready because it's a long way to November and he's going to be asked a lot of questions he doesn't want to answer.

If he keeps reacting like this, it'll be like chum in shark-infested water. The press will push every one of his hot buttons. Have popcorn ready.

[parkeradison]

McCain's a hothead and Republicans just might be sorry that he's their man before this is all over. That's all Obama, or Hillary if it has to be, has to do is get him irritated in a debate and he could self-destruct.

[gonavy]

McCain has a temper, big deal, everyone knows that. He WILL restrain himself. The bigger question is if Hillary will be able to restrain herself, or Bill for that matter. We are beginning to see their true colors now, and it isn't pretty. Hillary will provoke Obama and bring him into the mud, he won't be able to claim he is above it all. Politics as usuall, my friends.

[transendentilist]

Hey Ace, this thread is about McCain, not the Clintons. Grow up.

[gfm975]

Senator "HOTHead" at his finest. Wow, imagine what might happen if the old fart is awakened at 3 am... and all the reporter was doing was her job.

This cantakerous old flip flopper is hardly Presidential timber.

[kroses98]

Go to TheRealMcCain.com for the REAL scoop. My, my, we have so many Troll propagandists on this site today!!!!!

[LucyC]

3AM: Yes, this is President McCain. No, I do NOT have Prince Albert in the can.

[CintiBlue]

Well, if your refrigerator is running you'd better go catch it.

[seted]

I watched the news report of Bush nominating McCain for the crown the other day and I have to say I did not see a leader standing up there. Bush talked over him, answered questions for him, pick which reporters McCain was allowed to talked to. McCain stood there simpering and yessiring Sir Assalot, then was led away as if Bush had confused him with his dog Barney. McCain has proved he would do and say anything to grasp the brass ring of the presidency and has sacrificed what little respect I had for him to begin with. This is the man who is supposed to make us feel safe?

[gonavy]

This was a formallity. Flags would have been raise if Bush did not endorse McCain. This really defeats the popular argument that McCain and Bush are the same and are buddies. These two men cannot stand each other. It was clear during the endorsement. Time for all you liberals to find some other argument to throw at McCain, because he isn't in Bush's pocket.

[transendentilist]

No, they just hug and kiss.

[kroses98]

And he is intricately and forever connected with Bush in that photograph of the HUG!!!!!

[beachykeen02]

If the media could break the "loving trance" they have with McCain right now, perhaps they could ask him a few hard questions...like explaining his switch on tax cuts, and immigration, and a few other things that he's slithered around these last few months. The media needs to do something other than cover his pretty wife. I feel so sorry for that poor woman. She looks starved, beaten down, and sedated.

[mike53]

Somehow I think McCains temper pales in comparison to the Hildebeasts temper.

[ZombieKiller]

She should have pushed that last question, "Why are you so angry?" He flipped out over this question, and wont even let the woman finish a sentence.

By the way, since when do reporters begin every question with, "Can I ask you....?"

[humuhumunukunukuapuaa]

Is Nutcase McCain the one you want answering the phone at 3 AM?

[Counterglow]

Do I want McCain answering the phone at 3 am? Only if it's a call-back on a pizza he ordered.

[Ramirez]

Is McCain the guy our enemies want answering the phone at 3AM?

[zadzi]

Nobody wants McCain answering the damn phone, that much is established!

[gonavy]

My thoughts exactly. They are going to be scared to death of crossing McCain. Do you think they would be afraid of Obama? I think not, because Putin and that nut from Iran (whose name I refuse to learn how to spell) would be shacked up in the Lincoln bedroom.

[BWonka]

Probably - they'll see him as just another Bu$hie blindly following all the FAILED policies of the Bu$hCo Crime Family.

[spiffarino]

Sure. They'd like a President with a hair-trigger temper who would keep us in a protracted Middle Eastern war where our enemies can blend into crowds and target Americans with impunity, thereby creating a backlash against the populace from our tired and abused soldiers which in turn would cause worldwide resentment against our once-respected nation. Why, that just be handing them everything they asked for!

Oh wait...that one's been done already.

[Centaur]

Hillary Clinton thinks so.

[Rog49Thomas]

I believe they disconnect the phones in the patients' rooms at nursing homes after 11PM so that their sleep is not disturbed.

[forpeace]

*

humuhumunukunukuapuaa

Is Nutcase McCain the one you want answering the phone at 3 AM?

================

Hell NO!

We don't want McBush answering the phone at any time!

After Bush, last thing we need in this country is having a Warmonger with Temper in the WH.

*

[BWonka]

Won't matter who the Democrats put up when this is all the Dead Elephant Party has to offer. A sad, once proud man has become a joke. He has proven many times how good he is at losing, so a,m sure he'll fail again.

Hey George - why don't you give him another kiss. Then sit back and watch him AND your party die.

[gonavy]

Confusion is beginning to set in here. In case you haven't noticed, Hillary will tear the democrat party apart. Kicking and screaming, slobbering and cussing on every channel. McCain will win easily.

And he will do it before you guys even get finished picking a nominee.

[RedWhiteandBrooklyn]

Too bad that the repug chickenhawks (those little wimpy girlyboys who never made the team... like George W.) will mistake this for some kind of "toughness". Idiots!

[dotmafia]

Regarding McCain's new web ad I just saw on CNN, showing Winston Churchill speaking about never surrendering to the Nazi's, I have just one thing to say:

Mr. McCain, you are NO Winston Churchill!

[humuhumunukunukuapuaa]

Churchill? The same Winston Churchill who got his conservative fat ass saved from the Nazis by that famous liberal who went by the initials "FDR"?

[Ramirez]

Battle of Britain, Summer 1940

US declares war on Germany, Dec 1941

[gonavy]

I sense some fear here. That ad will saturate the airwaves. McCain will not have to play Hillary's dirty politics, he will rise above it with this.