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McCain reaches out to women: Rape is like bad weather: “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
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[link to rawstory.com]
Three days after rescheduling a fundraiser that had been planned at the home of a supporter who joked about rape, Republican presidential candidate John McCain continues to face questions about why he is keeping the $300,000 raised by Texas oilman Clayton Williams.
At a press conference in Arlington, Virginia, CNN’s Dana Bash asked McCain why his staff had even scheduled a fundraiser with Williams, who in 1990 joked that rape was like bad weather: “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
The question visibly agitated McCain. He furrowed his brow, fidgeted with his notes, blinked rapidly, scowled, squinted, scoffed and grimaced as Bash was completing her question.
Finally he said, “my people were not aware of a statement he made 16 or 18 years ago. I’ve forgotten how many years ago it was.”
McCain defended the decision to keep the money Williams raised, after Democrats hit him on the decision earlier in the day.
“The people that contributed are supporters of mine, not supporters of his, so when we found out that this was planned there, we said, ‘No, we’ll reschedule it, and do it some place else,’ and I understand that he’s not attending,” McCain said. “I don’t, that’s pretty much the sum of it all.”
The Democratic assault on McCain’s connection to Williams continued after the press conference, when the Democratic National Committee again accused him of hypocrisy.
“Instead of doing the right thing by denouncing Clayton Williams’s widely known and deeply offensive comments about women, Senator McCain once again chose to put his political ambitions ahead of his principles. Williams’ shameful history was readily available to anyone willing to do a 30-second online search,” DNC communications director Karen Finney said in an e-mail. “McCain’s silence on these comments, his willingness to keep the money Clayton Williams steered to his campaign, and the fact that McCain plans to go back and hold this fundraiser when he hopes no one is watching are all part of the reason the American people are seeing through McCain’s image as a so-called ‘maverick.’”
Later in the press conference, a reporter asked about McCain’s legendary temper, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested the Arizona senator does not have the “right temperament” to be president.
Although none of his specific, well documented tirades were mentioned, McCain responded as he has in the past when questioned about his sometimes excessive anger: He sidestepped the question.
“I have a very significant legislative record,” McCain said, emphasizing his “record of bipartisan work” in the Senate.
McCain did not deny an anger management problem. Instead he tried to re-frame his anger as passionate frustration at a country headed in the wrong direction that shows he’s in touch with the common man.
“Do I get angry from time to time?” McCain asked. “Americans are angry when we waste billions of dollars in wasteful pork-barrel spending. I was not elected Miss Congeniality in the United States Senate.”
This video is from CNN.com, broadcast June 16, 2008.
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