Report: McCain Pushed Woman In A Wheelchair

On Sunday, McClatchy Newspapers published a story on Sen. John McCain's oft-discussed temper, detailing one incident in which McCain allegedly pushed a woman in a wheelchair.

According to McClatchy's report, in 1996, McCain was met in the Senate office halls by a group of family members of POW-MIAs who had been pressing him to pursue more information on their relatives.

Six people present have written statements describing what they saw. According to the accounts, McCain waved his hand to shoo away Jeannette Jenkins, whose cousin was last seen in South Vietnam in 1970, causing her to hit a wall.

As McCain continued walking, Jane Duke Gaylor, the mother of another missing serviceman, approached the senator. Gaylor, in a wheelchair equipped with portable oxygen, stretched her arms toward McCain.

"McCain stopped, glared at her, raised his left arm ready to strike her, composed himself and pushed the wheelchair away from him," according to Eleanor Apodaca, the sister of an Air Force captain missing since 1967.

McCain's staff wouldn't respond to requests for comment about specific incidents.

It's impossible now to determine whose recollection of these events is accurate. But Democrats clearly continue to see McCain's temperament as a potential electoral liability. Appearing on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday, Sen. Barbara Boxer argued that McCain's hot-streak is a legitimate campaign issue that should dissuade voters from electing him commander in chief.

"Just listen to what some of his Republican friends have said about him," said Boxer. "Thad Cochran, a Republican conservative senator from Mississippi says the thought of John McCain in the White House sends cold chills down his spine. I don't agree with Kay Bailey that everybody loses their temper like that. And I think we've all seen it happen. It's not rational when it happens. And because John McCain raised the issue, he actually raised it and says he has the temperament -- you know, I think it should be on the table. And anyone watching, you know, Barack Obama stay as cool as a cucumber under the most unbelievable scathing attacks can see that."

Boxer's comment, the crux of which had been raised earlier in the segment, came in the midst of what was a heated exchange between her and Senate colleague Kay Bailey Hutchinson. The Texas Republican laughed off the idea that McCain was any more volatile than other senators. "It is just ridiculous to say he doesn't have the temperament," she remarked. "I mean everybody gets upset at some point."

Comments

[Roberto2201]

Too bad the great actor Richard Widmark passed away March 24. He could have played the lead in "The John McCain Story."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHHJsXH3BiU

If you're in a hurry, fast-forward to about 3:30 in.

[brandon102]

No, no, no. Please. So he pushed a woman in a wheelchair. Did he pistol whip her too? Karl Rove wouldn't spend ten seconds on wheelchair-pushing and temper. It's not what grabs people's attention, unfortunately. With Cheney & Bush and Rumsfeld, you think people care about "temper?"

How about McCain leaving his sick wife for a beer heiress? How about voting against funding the POW's he pretends to care about? How about the Keating 5 & how it might benefit someone who's got money up the you-know-where.

How about every single time we hear the POW violins start playing (not to insult them, only the flatulent overuse by McCain) someone says "Your wife must have been so happy to finally have you back home with your family, Senator McCain."

It's like that scene in "The Contender" where one party is attacking the other's candidate with a sex scandal and the other party wants to fire back. When given the "ammunition" to be used in a response, and the info amounts to cheating on income taxes, the political handler blew up & said something like "Taxes! You brought me taxes? Get me something I can use. Boys Scouts. Little girls. Something we can strike back with for god's sake." Tough. Rovian tough.

And that's where Obama's surrogates are going to have to go. To the Swiftboats! To Victory! Slimy, disgusting, victory.

[siney]

well, they don't call them Cain and Unable for nothing...

[karaplanet]

This shows McCain's f*bomb throwing temper in all of its glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwTKM_u-7j4

In a congressional hearing, no less. Is this what you want leading our country?

[Jablum]

Great all we need is a president knocking people off in wheelchairs!!! True or not. This is the kind of foolishness that distracts us from the real issues. Is McCain the man for America?

[LizDexic]

Whomever wrote: "Democrats clearly continue to see McCain's temperament as a potential electoral liability." CLEARLY did not consider the content of the article they were writing!

It's NOT just Democrats that "continue to see McCain's temperment as a potential electoral liability" when REPUBLICAN Senator Thad Cochran is quoted later in the article and by Barbara Boxer in the video saying the same thing.

[Bienville]

Hutchinson says "everyone' loses his temper?

We aren't electing 'everyone.'

Doesn't it seem that "the button" should be in the hands of someone with self-control?

[BoulderSue]

You should change your headline. At first glance it looks like McCain acting like a Boyscout escorting a little old lady across the street. Make it "shoved aside" or something like that. And that was a long time ago . I have no doubt it is true, but more recent incidents would show us he hasn't changed.

[TGCNY]

Listening to the polls today and i see they're stating McBush/Sarah Cheney is up in the polls. Well all i can say to you americans who obviously are ignoring what is and has been going on in this dam economy for the past 8 years all i have to say to you is your gonna get what is coming to you definitly gonna get what u deserve YOUR PLACE RIGHT NEXT TO THE REST OF US IN THE UNEMPLOYEMENT LINE.

Obama08

ANYTHING CHENEY ENDORSES IS AS GOOD AS THE LAST EIGHT

[bullfinch]

When someone (like McCain for example) always goes around saying "my friends"..."my friends" all the time...well, there's a really good likelihood that this person is NOT a friend.

BEWARE THE MCCAIN/PALIN TICKET. It will be the DOWNFALL OF AMERICA.

[mjtaylor22]

The media, which is not Liberal in any way the more i look at it will not speak on the issues in prime time only late night do i ever see any discussion of the issues.
Also How and why do the cable networks and too many regular networks allow blatant LIes to stand as if they are anyway near true. The talking heads of the media just let blatant lies go unchallenged.
see to not comment on a policy difference is one thing but to allow one's position to be mis represented is absolutely maddening to me.........
Thsi must change
this must be stopped
or we really will be livign in communist china

[karela]

I wish to goodness that a video of McCain in one of his rages would turn up. A You Tube of that spectacle would be worth more than all the words there are. People need to see what he looks like when he "loses all sense of reason" when he is one of his rages.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

Where there's smoke there's fire. You know, when story after story after store came out about Bill Clinton's womanizing, it was pretty good evidence that he liked women overmuch. One or two might be discredited now and then (like Juanita Broaddrick), but in general, the massive nature of evidence inclines us to believe it to be true.

Of course, unless diplomacy is going to be conducted at Putin's farm where his beautiful virginal daughter is by chance going to be sleeping in the next room adjacent to the US president's, it's far less likely that such a man would get us into some global war for utterly petty reasons. McCain has reportedly, repeatedly blown up in utterly unreasoning, irrational rage. The theme of his entire lifetime is nastiness, impatience, irresponsibility, utter impulsiveness. This is the very last person we want in charge of our nations military, with his finger on the "nuclear button", looking to immediately retaliate against anyone, anywhere, who pisses him off.

[drewtom]

GET OFF MY LAWN! WHIPPER SNAPPER.

[jumpjumphalt]

Well, McCANE is so old, if he got angry, would he even remember it?