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McCain is 'Senator Hothead'
17/02/2008 09:03 - (SA)
Washington - John McCain is known for his temper. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been dubbed "Senator Hothead" by more than one publication.
Even his Republican Senate colleagues have not been spared his sharp tongue. McCain, who had a 22-year career as a naval aviator before launching his political career in 1982, does not delete the expletives when angry.
"F--- you," he shouted at Sen. John Cornyn last year.
"Only an a------ would put together a budget like this," he told the former budget committee chairman, Sen. Pete Domenici, in 1999.
"I'm calling you a f------ jerk!" he once retorted to senator Chuck Grassley.
With Cornyn, he smoothed things over quickly. The two argued during a meeting on immigration legislation; Cornyn complained that McCain seemed to parachute in during the final stages of negotiations. "F--- you. I know more about this than anyone else in the room," McCain reportedly shouted.
Cornyn chuckled at the memory of what he called McCain's "aggressive expressions of differences." The Texan has endorsed McCain.
"He almost immediately apologised to me," Cornyn said last week. "I accepted his apology, and as far as I'm concerned, we've moved on down the road."
The political landscape in Arizona, McCain's home state, is littered with those who have incurred his wrath. Former Governor Jane Hull pretended to hold a telephone receiver away from her ear to demonstrate a typical outburst from McCain in a 1999 interview with The New York Times.
McCain has even blown up at volunteers and, on occasion, the average guy.
He often pokes fun at his reputation: "Thanks for the question, you little jerk," he said last year to a New Hampshire high school student wondering if McCain, at 71, was too old to be president.
Other times, his ire is all too real. This has prompted questions about whether his temperament is suited to the office of commander-in-chief or whether it might handicap him in a presidential campaign against either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are not known for such outbursts.
"I decided I didn't want this guy anywhere near a trigger," Domenici told Newsweek in 2000 when McCain unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination against George W Bush.
His irascibility fits with McCain's proud image as a straight talker willing to say what people do not want to hear.
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