What Did John McCain Say About His Wife?

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise at 10:09 AM on May 2, 2008.

A man attending a McCain event as a registered member of the press was kicked out of the Des Moines town hall meeting for asking a question that working press should have asked him weeks ago: Did you call your wife a "cunt"?

The headline is typical of the kid glove treatment McCain gets from the media. McCain didn't "field the question" he kicked a member of the press out of his town hall meeting for asking a question:

McCain fields audience question on whether he called wife an expletive

REGISTER STAFF • May 1, 2008

A Clive man drew gasps from fellow audience members at today’s presidential candidate forum by using a four-letter word in a question to Sen. John McCain.

A member of the audience, identified as Marty Parrish of Clive, asked McCain during the event at the Polk County Convention Complex about a rumor that McCain had once used a profane word referencing female genitalia to describe his wife.

A book, “The Real McCain” by Cliff Schecter, accuses McCain of using the word in an exchange with his wife, Cindy, in 1992.

Here’s a transcript of today’s remarks:

PARRISH: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I’ve been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?

MCCAIN: Now, now. You don’t want to … Um, you know that’s the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don’t, there’s people here who don’t respect that kind of language. So I’ll move on to the next questioner in the back.

The audience gasped at the question and applauded at McCain’s handling of it. Parrish was escorted from the event and questioned by Secret Service, but not charged. Parrish had checked in to the event as a member of the press.

Parrish, a 45-year-old Baptist minister and technology business owner, said he attended the event specifically to confront McCain about the rumor.

“This is about character,” Parrish said, when reached by telephone afterward. “And in a moment of intemperance, he called his wife the most despicable name a person can call a woman.

Notice McCain didn't have the guts to answer the question. The word "no" was not, last I checked, considered profane even in Des Moines.

It's not like the McCain campaign has a policy of not responding to the cunt allegation. McCain had his spokeswoman accuse Schecter of fabrication in the New York Daily News when the Scheter's book came out:

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker brands the book "trash journalism" and tells us, "The story is completely fabricated." [NYDN]

McCain was implicitly warning the rest of the media not to ask him questions that make him mad.

Takes a big man to send out your spokesman to defame an author and kick a preacher/citizen journalist out of your town hall meeting.

McCain is a petty little coward whose toadies are crying "ambush" for a question about an allegation that was published over three weeks ago, addressed by a campaign spokeswoman, and discussed extensively in the media and online.

This is exactly the kind of bullying that lends further credence to Cliff Schecter's account and the many other examples of McCain's peevishness, intimidation, and rage he chronicles in his book, The Real McCain.

Also, why does John McCain is hate the use/mention distinction?

HT: Eric.

Update: Watch the video.

Tagged as: feminism, mccain, cindy mccain