We are who we are. Events shape us. I am not defending any of the racist/sexist crap Sen. McCain has said; but there is only one candidate running from his history. It is Sen. Obama.

Oh, John McCain is running from his racist rantings of the past, I guarantee.

Unfortunately, paper has a long memory, and enough of McCain's racist remarks are still around to haunt him.

You know it's a problem when multiple McCain surrogates deny that he's a racist. Lieberman made the same statement as Sen Graham just yesterday, saying McCain doesn't have a bigoted bone in his body.

Watch in the coming weeks and months -- you'll see a lot more about the very racist John McCain as the campaign evolves.

Linkage Paul?

If you are going to repeat Doug Thompson's claims, you could at least nod to the source. Unless hanging out at DC watering holes is on your long list of accomplishments and you are relaying your own experience...

Here are some quoted jokes from John McCain overheard in public at Bullfeather's.

You write an article calling someone a racist based SOLELY on a conversation someone (God knows who) allegedly "overheard in public". Worse still, you can't even provide a link to whomever is making this wild-haired claim.

That's sound sourcing there, Hooson. Sound sourcing indeed. But you go ahead and write about it anyway.

There's the real joke.

Peter,
It's Doug Thompson, or someone repeating Doug Thompson. Sloppy.

If you try sourcing any of this garbage you bounce from one wacky liberal site to the next until finally you get to "not found".
Mr. Hooson needs to provide proof of this nonsense or remove it.

Here's a first-hand account from a Capitol Hill Republican insider and Chief of Staff who sat with John McCain at Bullfeathers and heard some of McCain's racist remarks.

As a Capitol Hill chief of staff, I often drank at Bullfeathers and was invited to join the throng at McCain's table one evening. A few minutes listening to the racism, bigotry and homophobia of the Arizona Congressman told me all I needed to know.

McCain loved to tell jokes about lesbians, blacks, Hispanics and the Vietnamese community that occupied a large section of Arlington County, Virginia, just south of the District of Columbia.

Of course, McCain didn't use polite language in the jokes: He used names like "fags" or "queers" or "dykes" or "niggers" or "spics" or "wetbacks" or "gooks."

San Francisco Chronicle - back in 2000:

"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."

These quotes are all over the web, Denise - maybe you can tell us why you choose to ignore them?

The "I hate the gooks" quote has been around forever. Maybe if you couldn't comb your own hair or raise your hands because of torture, you might understand. And McCain's teeth? He can thank them for that as well. Odd, his former captor SUPPORTS him.

Your first source? Don't make me laugh. It was the same one that long winded Paul used.

I'm sure I can find a link to a McCains remark somewhere ... trouble is everytime I try to search for "racist remark presidential contender" I keep getting links to Lude and the Hon. Rev. Wright ...
must be something wrong with Google ...

"Maybe if you couldn't comb your own hair or raise your hands because of torture, you might understand"

So you don't deny he's a racist, you just want everyone to believe he has a good reason for his racism?

Racism is racism. It's a character flaw -- but it isn't universal. Some can rise above the anger, keep it under control, forgive, move on - seek out their higher power or whatever -- but move on.

Not Jumpy McCain. He's still shell shocked and out of control when that button is pushed.

Racists are inherently dangerous leaders because there is a part of their character they can't control.

So you don't deny he's a racist, you just want everyone to believe he has a good reason for his racism?

With a post so poorly sourced, you like a fool even attempting to defend Paul's garbage.

Even if the source were remotely valid, the MSM would be all over it--long before either you got to it.

Aside from the usual arm waving and name-calling I don't see anyone suggesting that either of these reports of racism are inaccurate.

"The "I hate the gooks" quote has been around forever."

It's an oldie - 2000 presidential campaign - but it's a goody, so I'm expecting a comeback.

Good grief Lee, you are looking even more pitiful than usual.
I am guessing you weren't even born during Vietnam. I know people who are still so bitter they won't see any thing in that remark. McCain had a right to his feelings and he certainly has grown since then.

Michelle and Zer-0 don't seem too fond of Caucasians, maybe we should start a bunch of Internet rumours about them?
No, we won't; they will implode on their own!

Aside from the usual arm waving and name-calling I don't see anyone suggesting that either of these reports of racism are inaccurate.

The utter lack of verifying the authenticity and accuracy of Hooson's source and of the actual jokes (excluding the "gooks" one because it IS verifiable) by default and with absolutely certainty calls into question the truth and accuracy behind the "report". I'm strongly stating that Hooson's source IS definitely inaccurate...well, bullshit.

Soooo, after being captured, imprisoned and totured by the North Vietnamese, he admits that he hates them and uses a nasty word to describe them.
From the same article Lee cites in his second link:

"I was referring to my prison guards," McCain said, "and I will continue to refer to them in language that might offend some people because of the beating and torture of my friends."
McCain made it clear that his anger extends only toward his captors. As a senator, he was one of the leaders of the postwar effort to normalize U.S. relations with Vietnam.
Campaign officials do not expect the controversy to hurt McCain, either in tomorrow's South Carolina primary or later in the campaign.
"If people understood the context, they wouldn't be upset," Mike Murphy, a senior adviser to the campaign, said last night.
But the racial slur used by the senator has a long, painful history that is felt by many Asian Americans.

In context, it is understandable.

Using the same logic, how does this compare to those that throw around the terms hicks, rednecks, fundies, white trash, trailer trash and the like?

For the first link, however, it is just the repeat of Thompson's claims. If this was a regular occurence in a public place, you'd expect somebody else besides a former opposition staffer to have heard it as well.

Unless there is a conspiracy! (cue dramatic music)

In context racism is acceptable?

No. Standing in the United States in the year 2000 and calling Vietnamese "gooks" is not acceptable, and pointing to something that happened thirty years earlier does not excuse it.

If McCain was a racist in 2000 he's still a racist today.

Racism is racism. It's a character flaw -- but it isn't universal. Some can rise above the anger, keep it under control, forgive, move on - seek out their higher power or whatever -- but move on.

Still true.

Every racist got that way for a reason, but the reason does not change the fact that it's racism.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright got to be a racist by being discriminated against for decades as a black man in America. Does that excuse his racism? Not for a second.