Joe Lieberman: "John McCain Doesn't Have A Racist Bone In His Body", Well... Except When Calling Vietnamese "Gook[s]"

Flashback, John McCain of 2000:

On his campaign bus recently, Sen. John McCain told reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." Although McCain said he was referring only to his prison guards, there are many reasons why his use of the word "gook" is offensive and alarming.

It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group.

It is alarming because a major candidate for president publicly used a racial epithet, refused to apologize for doing so and remains a legitimate contender.

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Comments

[MadRiver Jack]

04:47 PM on 08/06/2008

Don't be confused about Lieberman:

http://i33.tinypic.com/2sb5xyq.jpg

[magen]

03:55 PM on 08/04/2008

Don't we have any Asian American groups to protest this racist remark?????????

[TexasDem0]

12:21 PM on 08/04/2008

I cannot understand the rational for some of the comments here posted by others, but when I was in Vietnam, the work “gook” was a racist term used by racists.

[PACRAT]

09:26 AM on 08/04/2008

Is Leibermouse for real?

If McCain doesn't have a racist bone in his body, who's bones is he usiing? Why does the media continue to treat McCain with kid gloves and ignore his idiocy? Oh, would it be because the media are owned by neo-cons?

[peterg76]

11:23 AM on 08/04/2008

If he has no bones, maybe that's why flip-flopping comes so easily to him.

[Rog49Thomas]

05:24 AM on 08/04/2008

In general politicians say what it takes to get elected. And use the tactics necessary to get elected.

Does one have to be a racist to play the race card?
Does one have to be religious to court "Pastor" Dobson?
Does one have to hate gays to trade on homophobia?

Answer to all the above is no.

What's required is simply hypocrisy.

[jqcitizen]

03:30 AM on 08/04/2008

As a former GI, I can say this, and Joe Lieberman cannot. ..... If you love war Joe Lieberman, go fight one.

Quit calling those that have been "there" names.

War IS about race, heritage, religion and above all self preservation (in some cases ego).

Now join your favorite hate group, the US NAVY. ...John McCain and John Kerry.

Your ego might get inflated, but you might have to change your political mind again if and when you survive a stupid war like this one.

[mjc]

02:43 PM on 08/03/2008

This may come as news to some but that term was used so widely by our troops in Vietnam that don't think any one ever thought that it was a racist term; just another term for Viet Cong, or perhaps all Vietnamese. In order to hate your enemy enough to destroy them completely many armies, but especially our army, develops code words for the enemy that designate that those people are not quite human. I know I heard it enough from returning vets to believe that many DID think that.

[RedKnuckles]

03:29 PM on 08/03/2008

But the point here is that here is McCain, 25 years later, still calling them gooks. You're absolutely correct that our troops were trained to hate their enemy, call them gooks, and essentially depersonalize them so they'd be easier to kill. But 25 years later, McCain is still in that mindset? What other damaged baggage has he been carrying all these years?

[BassMonk]

05:10 PM on 08/03/2008

Agreed Red. I think most of us understand mjc's point, it happens in all wars. But John McCain apparently did not understand it as of the quote from 2000. It makes me wonder if he's figured it out yet.

[Housewife]

03:34 AM on 08/04/2008

McCain is still fighting the Vietnam war, or would be if he'd had his way. That is why he can't be president. To him, Iraq is no different. He thinks getting out of that mess is surrender. We are in big trouble if he wins this election.

[Danigirl65]

04:01 PM on 08/03/2008

I don't think it comes as news to anybody BUT, as a candidate for President, McCain should not be given a slide on using a racial term.

Allowing McCain to refer to "gooks" because that is what Vietnam vets refer to the Vietnamese as would be like Obama using the "n" word and we excuse it because he is half black. Even Jesse Jackson didn't get away with that one, and McCain should be held to a higher bar.

[jethrock]

02:36 PM on 08/03/2008

Exactly

[captainigor]

02:27 PM on 08/03/2008

"Gook" is a Korean word that translates to "foreigner"

[Zenpilot]

03:11 PM on 08/03/2008

He must have been pretty mad at his Korean captors.

[Gunfighter]

07:31 AM on 08/04/2008

Actually, "gook" is a mispronunciation of a Korean word. Not criticizing... just saying.

[Thorn]

12:47 PM on 08/03/2008

At the time, everyone who was there concurred that he was speaking specifically about the men who tortured him (for five-and-a-half years). Ask yourself if you wouldn't use the most damaging language you could in the same situation.

[4real]

01:04 PM on 08/03/2008

Please that's like calling someone the N word and then say well not all blacks just the ones that did this--- a racial slur is a racial slur..period.

[mscriblerus]

02:52 PM on 08/03/2008

I've actually heard that before. Racial epithet followed quickly by embarrassed realization that object of said epithet was present, followed by nervous, meandering explanation of how it only applies to a very specific subset of said ethnic group, and certainly not the one representative present....then usually uncomfortable silence.

People that perform that little act are ignorant. People who buy their logic are fooling themselves.

[ThatsNotFunny]

01:29 PM on 08/03/2008

So using racial slurs is fine, as long as everyone in the room knows who you're talking about? I'm sorry, that just doesn't make any sense. Being tortured does not give you license to use language that demeans an entire people.

Not acceptable.