McCain's Top Seven Sexist Rants

In a year when the female vote is so important, it might have benefited John McCain if he'd built a little better of a relationship with them over the years. Hillary Clinton's withdrawal from the presidential race created a vacuum among women voters, a group that heavily favored Clinton's bid. While the vast majority of Clinton voters folded neatly in Barack Obama's camp, the adversarial relationship developed during the Democratic primary between the former First Lady and the Illinois Senator makes McCain a natural alternative. However, his history of insulting comments and inappropriate humor toward the demographic might make it difficult to capitalize at all on the scores of women voters marooned by Clinton's departure.

Former Rep. Pat Schroeder, a Colorado Democrat who became well-known and respected for her championing of women's rights during the 1970s and 80s, told the LA Times recently, "He has always had trouble dealing with women as equals." Based on the following collection of McCain incidents- from rape jokes to derogatory slurs- she just might be right.

Calling His Wife a C*nt - In his new book, The Real McCain, Cliff Schecter, a journalist and frequent contributor at the Huffington Post related perhaps the most disturbing of McCain's many well-publicized tirades. During his 1992 reelection bid, the Senator was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, his aides, and three journalists who spoke to Schecter on condition of anonymity, but independently confirmed each other's accounts of the incident. Cindy McCain playfully ran her fingers through the Senator's hair and teased, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain reddened and fired back, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollup, you cunt." After he'd cooled down, McCain apologized, saying he'd had a long day.

Calling a Young Girl Ugly and Disparaging the Attorney General - In 1998, McCain was speaking before a GOP fundraiser in Washington, D.C. when he asked, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father." The joke was ill-received on many levels- for its offense to the Attorney General, for its offense to the president and his wife. But most of all, for its attack on an eighteen year old girl.

Anyone who has a daughter can tell you that those middle teenage years can be tough. Girls at school can be vicious as it is. But when a national figure makes a predatory attack on a defenseless girl to further his own political causes, it's downright disgusting.

Delegation of Female Air Force Pilots - Former editor of the Arizona Republic, Pat Murphy, wrote a detailed editorial that was carried by a number of different papers in December of 1999. Murphy pointed to an incident in which a delegation interested in expanding opportunities for female pilots visited McCain at his Senate office back in 1991. McCain greeted them by calling them "honey," and "sweetie," and then proceeded to disparage them, calling them "a bunch of Pat Schroeders."

Comparing a US Ally to an Ugly Woman - In an interview with Fox News, McCain aimed his ill-fated humor at our allies, the French. "You know," he began, "the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it." This is a country that is heavily involved in the Afghan conflict- in particular, they're training Afghan soldiers to reduce the burden on the US military. McCain's questionable comments raised some a measured ruckus in both foreign and domestic circles, calling the Senator's diplomatic skills into question. But additionally, it was a comment that both objectified and demeaned women, clearly devaluing women by insulting those who don't "have the face," according to McCain's standards. By the way, let's be honest...John McCain isn't exactly an Adonis.

Rape Joke - Back in 1986, The Tuscon Citizen reported that McCain, running for his first term in the Senate, thought he'd try out some new material. Speaking before the National League of Cities and Towns in Washington, D.C. McCain cracked, "Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?'"

That's not all. In 1990, one of McCain's top fundraisers, former Texas GOP Gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams made a rape joke of his own. Likening the experience of being raped to bad weather, he said, "as long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

Rape jokes tend not to go over well. But while McCain survived the initial scandal, the blowback seems to have survived the 22 year gap. The story was recently unearthed and reported by a variety of online and in-print publications.

Wife Beating Joke - In a June, 2008 interview with ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper, McCain was asked why he had passed over Nevada's Republican Governor Jim Gibbons when choosing his state campaign chair (traditionally, the first choice if the governor and the presidential nominee are members of the same party). McCain explained that he had a longstanding relationship with the state's lieutenant governor, and that his choice was not a snub of any kind. Pressing the subject, Tapper asked whether McCain had passed over Gibbons as a result of the governor's relatively low approval ratings.

"And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago," McCain laughed.

The reference is to what Tapper refers to as a "distasteful bit of DC yuckery so commonly quoted its hackneyed."

Despite the widespread news stories on it in Nevada, it's possible that McCain hadn't heard about Gibbons' recent high-profile divorce, stemming from multiple charges of infidelity. Moreover, a cocktail waitress accused Gibbons of grabbing and threatening her with sexual assault in a parking garage.

In Tapper's words: "Awkward."

Opposing Equal Roles for Women in the Military - Following the end of the Gulf War in 1991, a large contingent of women in the military were pushing for increased rolls. McCain bristled at the idea, and spoke out publicly against it. "The purpose of the military is first to defend this nation's vital security interests throughout the globe and only second to ensure equality."

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