McCain Makes Awkward Wife-Beating Joke

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, columnist Jon Ralston asked McCain why he didn't choose Gov. Jim Gibbons (in the middle of a messy divorce) to chair his Nevada campaign:

McCain: I appreciate his support. As you know, the lieutenant governor is our chairman.

Q: Why snub the governor?

McCain: I didn't mean to snub him. I've known the lieutenant governor for 15 years and we've been good friends....I didn't intend to snub him. There are other states where the governor is not the chairman.

Q: Maybe it's the governor's approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president?

McCain: (Chuckling) And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago . . .

ABC News' Jake Tapper notes that McCain's evasive joke was a poor choice given the context:

Gov. Gibbons last month filed for divorce from his wife Dawn citing incompatibility.

It's pretty scandalous. The Reno Gazette-Journal recently reported
that one month Gibbons sent 860 text messages to a woman with whom Mrs. Gibbons suspects her husband of stepping out.

Gibbons, you may recall, started his governorship amidst accusations that he assaulted a cocktail waitress named Chrissy Mazzeo three weeks before Election Day. Mazzeo said Gibbons grabbed her in a parking garage and threatened to sexually assault her. Charges were never filed.

Later in the same interview, McCain calls Jimmy Carter "a lousy president."

Read more of the interview here.

Comments

[jollyelle]

McCain is just plain creepy, the last thing we need is another pampered ignorant chucklehead playing out the role as POTUS. It is so painful to listen to him speak and we haven't even reached the convention stage yet.....that's bad.
he seems ready to explode behind that cheshire cat grin of his,
he tells us he isn't well versed in the economy,
he calls himself an illiterate when it comes to using a pc or mac,
he doesn't know who holds the power in Iran,
he mixes up Shiite and Sunni,
he makes jokes about bombing iran and beating his wife..................
he wants to overturn Roe v Wade, with no ensuing plan...... almost every Senator is concerned about his explosive temper and
he calls his wife terrible names in front of reporters, i hate to think, (my friends,) about what he does and says in private.......... ew

okay if that doesn't clue us all in to exactly who he is!!!
We are just finishing up from the biggest mistake of the century ........
people voted in two oil businessmen to run our country and look what we got.
a war for oil that is making a nice profit for a few They did exactly what they wanted......
McCain is letting us know who he is ......and you better believe people are listening this time

[americanalien]

I agree, there is something about McCain that just totally creeps me out. I don't trust the old man and I never had. I don't buy his moderate "maverick" image. I think he is a total radical who would make a disastrous President. This man should not be allowed to get anywhere near the White House.

[BigMike75]

This "Maverick" moniker is nothing but a ruse. John McCain doesn't resemble the candidate of 8 years ago that battled George Kush, not even close. What you have now is a candidate that has flip flopped on just about every major issue, to cater to a base that is standing him up at every opportunity. The GOP base is so uninspired that John McCain was the best candidate they could put forward, many GOP big wigs have already conceded this election. I really don't see how Geritol John doesn't tap out in the first round come November.

[Dave01]

Do those old movies from Kindergarten come to mind when you see him? They do me! "Stranger Danger". YIKES!!!!!! CALL THE COPS!!!!!!!

[privatepatriot]

My apologies if someone pointed this out. He was obviously responding to being bated by the reporter. The most famous question of this type is trying to get someone to respond "yes" or "no" to "Did you stop beating your wife"? There is no good way to respond to that. There is no good way to respond to the question about running from the governor either.

Attacking McCain over something so ridiculous makes all of the legitimate criticism he deserves that much weaker.

[going2ireland]

Perhaps you failed to grasp the tastelessness of the remark. Or perhaps you make it a habit of making tasteless remarks and find nothing offending about it.

Mc could have chosen any numerous remarks to accomplish the same thing. By chosing that remark it speaks volumes about his character (or lack of).

[2008thankyou]

There are a million ways he could have responded to that question that didn't have to include complete disregard to the respect of women.

This man is out of touch with women, period!

[BENACEY]

uuuuuuummmmmmmm........ you fail to realize he wasnt asked that question. read the transcript before u post.

[DrFitz]

My reaction was also that the reporter was being a huge dick and was trying to provoke McCain. But the joke was a bizzare diversion as a way to diffuse things and keep his cool. And I think it does show one more time that McCain has a pretty screwed up mindset. I know the type who makes jokes like that, and they are the types you don't want around--as coworkers or anything else, let alone the leader of the country.

[andvoodoo2]

Apparently, they don't want to 'get it'. I completely agree with your last sentence.

[Syco]

johnny boy loves these kind of jokes

[PghMike]

This is a really stupid article -- I'm far from a McCain supporter, but even I recognize this as a reference to the old line about being asked "So, when did you stop beating your wife," meaning, of course, that you've been asked a question that has no good answer.

There are lots of reasons to hold McCain in contempt -- his position on Iraq, his vote on the Detainee Treatment Act (removing habeas protection for the duration of the perpetual war on terror), or his position on civil rights in general. This comment, however, is not one of them.

[privatepatriot]

Exactly. Wish this had posted before I started writing my post a few minutes ago...

[Gretchoid]

It was not funny or a good answer to any question.

I can't see how this guy makes it to next week with his flip remarks and general ignorance. November is too far away.

He does have the Rove playbook on giving out statements and then bald-faced lying that he never said THAT...so the gut-voters are even more confused and the rest of us try to pin him down. Ah, but that is the point, to not be for anything. Except war. But no money for the soldiers. And, "my friends"... keep those tax-cuts for the wealthy...because this guy is a MAVERICK.

The real MAVERICK is rolling over in his grave. But the word maverick doesn't mean what it used to, unless it's convenient for the Senator. Or he's on his bus with the MSM reporters, uh, I mean fans.

The debates are gonna be UN-believable.

[pixy242a]

that is as maybe, but MCain has a history of tasteless jokes, which he gets away with. Imagine the noise in the MSM if obama said thist.

[belief08]

PghMike;

Oh, I guess this is also like his running joke of bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. Which we are presently poised to do by way of Bush. It just amazes me, how you people can accept these kinds of idiotic comments from this man. Yet you pounce on Obama for the slightest comment, then you twist it to benefit your agenda.

There's something wrong with this mans mine after all these years. The outbursts, temper tantrums and the fact that he is drinking those lattes that they are water. This is a 70 year old man who is stuck in the caffine mode to stay alert. This is a man who has to have someone whishper in his ear about events that he should know by now, since he is soooo against them. We're getting rid of a dim wit to replace it with a loose canon; and that doesn't scare you people one bit. This is the man that will have access to the nuclear button and he and the government will be in the bunker. Where will the lowly voters be that put this person in office? "Radiated" and he's willing to continue to strike first without talking.

[DrFitz]

Is that really a cliche? If so, it must be an acient one. I've never heard it before. I guess the gaffe is just as much another "old guy out of touch with contemporary culture" as "neanderthal sexist"

[H215]

EXCUSE ME??? LOTS of people have heard this line - and I'm frankly stunned by how many are ignorant of it. Oh - and its not "ancient" just because you don't know it.

What bothers me is how many people, when confronted with something they don't understand, instantly declare themselves superior to the benighted souls doing xyz. Not "Why did you say that? I don't undersand that?" but "You're incorrect, and thus evil and inferior, while I am correct and enlightened."

This report has received the same lame-ass coverage on Gawker and AOL. I agree with the above posters that there are so many valid problems with McCain, we don't need to waste our time and energy making our selves look stupid by being "outraged" by a line that takes, as a given, that wife-beating is unforgivable and career-ending.

Oh, and I'm a classically educated, old-school feminist liberal who spent years on the barricades, and I hate McCain. So don't even try the superiority shite. Now go away kid, ya bother me.

[NTO08]

Agreed...stick with the stuff that matters and not this nonsensical garbage...designed to make Women who backed Hillary run from McCain...I doubt very many are planning on voting for John...and any who do, would certainly not let this distorted remark sway them.

[happypup]

And this is the man Hilary's supporters are threatening to vote for?????

[nmp]

Oh, come on. Anyone who has ever studied logic knows exactly what he meant. He was alluding to the fallacy of the loaded question, the most common example of which is, "When did you stop beating your wife?"

Senator McCain is wrong on taxes. He's wrong on Iraq and Iran. He's wrong on women's health issues, education, energy and environmental policy, and a host of other issues. Let's beat him on the issues instead of embarrassing ourselves with meaningless bullshit about a joke that apparently went over the heads of the netroots.

[belief08]

nmp; Let's beat him on the issues instead of embarrassing ourselves with meaningless bullshit about a joke that apparently went over the heads of the netroots.
____________________________________________________________
Well, I'm sure the millions of women whom have experienced the rage of a man fists upon her, didn't seem meaningless. The fact that he was tortured at the hands of men, it's beyond me that he just doesn't get it; that it's nothing to joke about. Hence, his vote for torture at Gitmo. I'm damn sure It won't stop there either, because the Bush/McSame's group have their eye on Iran now.

[H215]

The line assumes that everyone hearing it is in agreement that wife-beating is unacceptable, unforgivable and career-ending. THAT's why its used.

If you don't like people saying that wife-beating is unacceptable, feel free to use your own variation: "When did you stop using the n-word?" or "When did you stop throwing puppies in the grinder?"

[xmw]

I don't get why any woman would vote for this guy and the ones going from Hillary to him....some things you just can't put your head around.

[Ged2012]

Women voters matter in this election, Senator McCain. I would be dumbfounded if any woman out there voted for you, knowing about why you dumped your first wife (she said..."he is a forty year old who wanted to be 25..."), to calling your second wife a "c...t," and now this.

[StarkRavingNakedEmperor]

Here here!

[ThirdSection]

I suppose that explains the glazed look in Cindy's eyes.

[StarkRavingNakedEmperor]

And the reason she got hooked on Mother's little helpers! (Which could also explain the glazed look in her eyes)

[devinsbuddy]

McCain Makes McCain Makes Awkward Wife-Beating Joke

Ya mean McShame could have made a Non-Awkward Wife-Beating Joke?

Maybe we should give the oild guy a little slack.?

[going2ireland]

Not

[JimR]

It is NOT a wife-beating joke. It is an old joke about the media asking loaded questions - "So how long have you been beating your wife?" No matter how you answer, it looks like you are admitting to beating your wife, which everybody agrees is reprehensible. McCain was asked a loaded question, which is why he made the joke.

[JimSAC]

At least he stopped. I think if he asked forgiveness and gets help for his violent temper we should be willing to forgive him. But he should apologize to her for his past behavior.

[going2ireland]

Forgive - yes. Vote in as POTUS - no.

[luvobama]

Another communicator from the right side of your dial. Yikes

[Zentomato]

What a laugher old John is turning out to be. He really is a living, breathing, walking, perpetual gaffe machine.

[Scarllatti]

This guy suffers from LOCKED JAW SYNDROME.

[americanalien]

True, never trust a man who talks between his teeth.

[PioneerKing]

Are any of the republicans capable of independent and original thought?

There was nothing cute, funny or amusing about the comment McCain made. But it is to be expected from McCain since he likes to call his wife a trollop and c*&t, and make nasty sexist jokes about Chelsea Clinton and allowed a video of one of his supporters calling Hillary a b*^#h to be placed on his campaign website.

The women who voted for Hillary and who think McCain is someone they should vote for in November will be voting for a misogynist when they vote for McCain.