Wednesday, July 02, 2008

JOHN MCCAIN

Did McCain Really Lift an Ortega Associate Out of His Chair?

I realize I'm supposed to be horrified by this story...

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up a [Nicaraguan President Daniel] Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said in an interview with the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever ...

"I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, 'Good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission.' I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy ... and he just reached over there and snatched ... him."

... but if accurate, I can't help but find myself hoping McCain comes to agree with Obama's proposal for unconditional, face-to-face summits with dictators.

I know, I know, we're supposed to be gasping at the thought of a U.S. senator roughly grabbing a aide to a former Soviet ally and FARC-supporter, once trained as a guerrilla by Cuba. Yet somehow I get the feeling that this is the sort of anecdote that will run in both Obama attack ads and McCain bio ads. (Note to GOP: Get this Cochran story running on Miami Spanish-language television immediately.)

This, by the way, helps explain how McCain lost the endorsement of the former Soviet ally and FARC-supporter Ortega to Obama. "It's not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. ... but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change."

UPDATE: A lot of readers wonder whether what Cochran describes is accurate, considering McCain's permanent injuries to his arms from the war. Perhaps it was just a collar grab? 

07/02 11:55 AMShare