A List of McCain's Nastiest Moments

Earlier today, a commenter asked if John McCain is "truly as nasty and belligerent as he appears to be." Is he really that bad--or is it just one of those partisan memes that develops about an opponent? I'm guessing he isn't the only Shaker with that question, and, since detailing McCain's long list of objectionable qualities has been what one might call a specialty of mine since the inception of this blog back in '04, I figured I'd put together a little collection of Punk McNasty's Greatest Hits to answer that question and for handy-dandy reference.

• Accusing the Democrats of being sore losers and obstructionists motivated by partisan "bitterness" just because they had the temerity to not treat Condoleezza Rice's confirmation as Secretary of State as "a foregone conclusion."

• Accusing Vietnam veteran and Congressman Jack Murtha of being "too emotional" to be rational about the war.

• Sending then-freshman Senator Barack Obama what Matt Stoller called "remarkable" and one of "the single most bitter, nasty letters I have ever seen from any Senator."

• Threatening to leave an appearance before the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department because members of the audience challenged his statements on immigration, organized labor, and the war. He also questioned their work ethic and skills, telling them "You can't do it, my friends," when some accepted his hypothetical job offer of $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

• Threatening to commit suicide if the Democrats won a majority in the Senate.

• Using the racially-charged and highly inappropriate term "tar baby."

• Singing about bombing Iran:

• Responding to criticisms of that hilarious little ditty by snapping: "Please, I was talking to some of my old veterans friends. My response is, lighten up and get a life," without, naturally, the merest glimmer of irony that he'd been casually joking about taking lives.

• Telling Jon Stewart he'd brought him an IED from Iraq as a gift:

• Responding to Congressman Murtha's criticism of that hilarious joke with: "All I'm going to say to Murtha and others. ... Lighten up and get a life," to which Atrios said what ought to have been obvious to any halfwit but eluded the evidently witless McCain: "The point is that dead troops and other victims are no longer capable of getting 'a life'."

• Erupting at fellow Republican Senator John Cornyn in a meeting about immigration legislation, during which McCain accused Cornyn of raising a concern just to torpedo a legislative deal, "used a curse word associated with chickens," and shouted "[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room!"

• Responding to one of his supporters asking of Hillary Clinton, "How do we beat the bitch?" by laughing:

• Saying he hoped Fidel Castro would die.

• Reportedly calling his own wife a cunt.

• Shoving one of his Republican colleagues and repeatedly calling another "boy."

• Telling women to get "education and training" instead of fighting for equal pay in the legislature.

• Joking about his reputation as "Senator Hothead."

• Calling Obama's response to Bush's outrageous suggestion that Obama wants to appease terrorists a "hysterical diatribe." (Got that? Bush calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer isn't a hysterical diatribe; Obama defending himself against the charge is.)

• Joking about domestic violence.

• Joking about exporting cigarettes to kill Iranians.

• Joking about rape.

• Asserting that Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."

• Being a ginormous misogybag.

• Challenging Obama's patriotism.

• Behaving like a rude jagoff to reporters. (One example of about 10 different posts I've written on the same theme.)