THAD COCHRAN (R-MS) PROBABLY WOULDN'T BE INVITED TO JOIN McCAIN CABINET-- EXPOSES McCAIN'S DARK, VIOLENT NATURE

There have been a spate of reports from fellow members of the House and Senate and from other people who have worked with McCain over the years that his temperament-- and especially his hot temper and nasty nature-- should make voters ponder long and hard whether or not he is really qualified to be president. Today the debate erupted again. Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran was famously quoted saying "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me." Today Cochran recounted another story about what the Arizona Republic has called McCain's "volcanic temper." Basically Cochran, who claims he has witnesses, let lose with the story of McCain "roughing up" a Nicaraguan diplomat in 1987. Although Joe Lieberman is expected to run to Fox News as soon as he gets back from the junket to Colombia and Mexico to swear that he knows McCain for 100 years and McCain would never do anything like that, McCain has already released a statement basically saying Cochran is a liar. (In McCain World, everyone is always a liar-- except Lindsey and Holy Joe. His whole career has been marked by catastrophes of his own making that are always everyones' fault but his own-- from his abysmal record at the Naval Academy to crashing up half a dozen planes and killing hundreds of American sailors to the Keating Five Scandal.) He sneared at the mention of Cochran's name at a press conference today

McCain grabbed the Nicaraguan by the shirt and lifted him out of his chair. McCain says he's never liked the Sandinistas but denied that the incident Cochran described ever happened. "[T]here was never anything of that nature. It just didn't happen," McCain told reporters, feigning calm.

I can't imagine Cochran would make it up-- they are running on the same ticket in November-- but McCain's camp immediately started leaking smears about Cochran being an earmarks abuser. Now I'm wondering if McCain has these violent psychotic episodes and doesn't remember them afterwards. He has always vehemently denied them all, from fighting and belittling profession women to bullying a clod like Rick Renzi, and then gone on to seek revenge.

Here's what Senator Cochran told the Biloxi Sun Herald:

"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. 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."

SOMETIMES HE DOESN'T EXPLODE IN VIOLENT TEMPER TANTRUMS


Sometimes he just gets angry and gives people the evil eye. Like when a reporter asked him the very legitimate question of how his Vietnam experiences prepared him for the White House. Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org has the whole story.