Washington Post piece on McCain’s anger is unintentionally funny
The Washington Post has an unintentionally amusing piece about Senator John McCain’s anger. Its recycling of 20 year old stories (on page one!) makes the Post look faintly ridiculous in our view, and isn’t worth the newsprint. On the other hand, the piece makes McCain very human, robustly male, intolerant of backstabbing and incompetence, and quick to judgment — all of which make him look pretty attractive as Presidential material:
McCain’s temper first became an issue after an incident in 1989, during McCain’s first term in the Senate. The nomination of a beleaguered John Tower to become defense secretary was already in trouble when Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, a conservative Democrat who later became a Republican, helped doom it by voting against Tower. A furious McCain, believing that Shelby had reneged on a commitment of support, accosted him, got within an inch of his nose and screamed at him. News of the incident swiftly spread around the Capitol. “I think it started there,” Salter said, though by 1989, many of McCain’s colleagues had already heard stories about other eruptions during his two terms in the House…
in 1986…After McCain finished his speech, he returned to a suite in the hotel, sat down in front of a TV and viewed a replay of his remarks, angry to discover that the speaking platform had not been erected high enough for television cameras to capture all of his face — he seemed to have been cut off somewhere between his nose and mouth. A platform that had been adequate for taller candidates had not taken into account the needs of the 5-foot-9 McCain, who left the suite and went looking for a man in his early 20s named Robert Wexler, the head of Arizona’s Young Republicans, which had helped make arrangements for the evening’s celebration. Confronting Wexler in a hotel ballroom, McCain exploded, according to witnesses who included Jon Hinz, then executive director of the Arizona Republican Party. McCain jabbed an index finger in Wexler’s chest. “I told you we needed a stage,” he screamed, according to Hinz. “You incompetent little [expletive]. When I tell you to do something, you do it.”
Senator McCain says of his campaign in 2000: “My anger didn’t help my campaign. It didn’t help. People don’t like angry candidates very much.” We do, but we’re part of the grumpy old men demographic.