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Matthias Schrader / AP
Sen. John McCain
Updated 12:52 pm ET. Always one to speak -- or Tweet -- his mind, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Monday made a joke comparing Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey, something one Republican congressman charged was “racist.”
“So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space - wasn't he just there last week?” McCain said in a tweet that also linked to a story about Iran launching a monkey into space.
Some didn’t take so kindly to the not-so-diplomatic quip, prompting McCain, 76, to respond: “Re: Iran space tweet - lighten up folks, can't everyone take a joke?”
Seeing that, Michigan congressman Rep. Justin Amash, 32, shot back.
“Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes,” Amash tweeted.
Not everyone on the right agreed with Amash. Conservative John Podhoretz, for example, Tweeted this: "How dare McCain say something demeaning & disparaging abt the foremost anti-Semite on the planet." And this: "So...it's defend-the-Jew-hater-from-the-war-hero day."
It’s not the first time McCain’s made a joke about Iran that landed him in some hot water. During his run for president in 2007, McCain sang about bombing the country.
Asked by a GOP primary voter when the U.S. would send an “air-mail message to Tehran,” McCain said, “That old Beach Boys’ song, ‘Bomb Iran?’ Bomb, bomb, bomb—, anyway.”
McCain’s response then as now? It’s just a joke -- "get a life.”
“When veterans are together, veterans joke,” McCain said at the time. “And I was with veterans and we were joking. And if somebody can’t understand that, my answer is, ‘Please, get a life.’”
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We need a Select Committee looking into this.
Forget about the economy and war. We must get to when McCain knew about the monkey and did he try to get it off his back?
how DARE McCain insult monkeys that way ?!?
McCain is so wrong. The guy's more like a monkey's turd.
I agree with McCain. We are so worried about being politically correct we can't think straight anymore. Ridiculous. I give him points for his sense of humor. And why are we bending over backward to defend HORRIBLE people? Screw 'em.
Oh good. As long as they eat each other and leave us alone.
Johnnie, won't you shut up now, please? You are not being helpful except as a foil to whatever you value personally.
Why is he insulting the monkey like that?
My thumbs up for anyone who can make a genuinely "funny" joke about Netanyahu and Lizards.
Okay! Netanyahu is defending Israel and the world against the Desert Lizards jokingly called the Palestinians. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Funny!
Not even their fellow Palestinians like 'em. They keep them in camps. The Egyptians refuse to open the border and refuse to let them move into Egypt.
How bout - what does a cold-blooded lizard eat? UN resolutious HAHA
What does the useless UN eat? AMERICAN MONEY. What laws do the whoring and oil money bribe-taking UN delegates break? AMERICAN MONEY.
What is the only stable multi-religious democracy in the ME? ISRAEL! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
The old man McCain needs to get a life and get off his cheap (it was a joke) diplomacy.
A monkey comparison? That should be considered a compliment. If he compared dinnerjacket to a paramecium, the entire microscopic world would feel.....do I really need to finish that?
If he really wanted to insult the guy and cause some chaos actually worth reporting, McCain should have called him a gay Iranian.
McCain is an idiot and a fraud.
My God, what an over-sensitive, over touchy, offended country we have become! Now we defend a despot like Ahmadinjad? Liberals who on this very site call Republicans, Conservatives and Christians every foul name their is are offended by this? PLEASE stop with your phony outrage. It was a joke, not a good one but a joke.
That is a funy joke.
The bigoted anti-Semites are out in full force today!
McCain, who is part of the Saudi Royal/GOP Muslim Brotherhood, shouldn't throw rocks from glass Republican houses. The Senator wanted the U.S. to aid al-Qaeda in Syria to overthrow the government; as he did in Iraq, Egypt, & Libya.
Yeah, but Obama called Kanye a jackass. Where was the outrage then? Most people agreed with the president. It was one of the few moments in the entire Obama administration when the nation was united with him.
However, McCain calls Ahmedinejad (they guy who wants to level Tel Aviv and says the holocaust was a lie) a monkey (because the Iranians claim they just sent a monkey into space), and the libby media universe explodes. Of course, the old white guy has to be a racist. Because that is all the libbys ever think.
Get. A. Grip.
Justin Amash is a republican ChrisMcBiteMe.
Hey, did you hear the one about the Vietnam POW who sang like a canary?...
You are obviously a racist. You have a thing against people of Scots-Irish ancestry.
I'm calling Maddow.
How horribly offensive! I can't believe he would insult monkeys that way!
Regardless of the relationship, this stuff is never helpful...
Between his "bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran" and this doesn't smack of any diplomatic skills.
I think it's time for McCain to retire and disappear from the public eye. He did a lot of good during his lifetime as senator, and we all applaud his service and fortitude as a soldier and POW. But the last several years -- notably the recent lapses of judgment such as this -- have proven that his best days are behind him and he is no longer of sound mind and conscience to serve the nation in such a capacity.
hmmm and Crazy drunken Uncle Joe, who can not ever open his mouth without inserting foot???
McCain should either get a brain or keep his mouth shut. Time has passed him by. He is now just a cranky old loser and should retire with something of his past image remaining. It has been a long time since he has done anything for the betterment of the nation
Ah libtards got to love them, defend a so called leader of a country who has a machine to chop off fingers. But demean and degrade a war hero. Libtards what are the good for, (especially Feisty I mean Jen) absolutely nothing. And while I am at it Jen, why do you continue to hide behind your computer and act like an ordinary citizen?? We all know who you work for.
I can't believe I'm saying this but John McCain is right. Get a life. It was a joke. The guy is a monkey on a string being played by the ayatollah. As for bombing Iran, that was said in front of a veterans group. There are plenty of things said amongst the military that wouldn't fly in the civilian world but so what. They have the right !!!
That is not the expression. Pretty sure you mean "puppet on a string."
Barney- Well written.
It's fun watching this group of racists, homophobes,gun nuts, and woman-haters eat each other alive.
Wow! This is the same guy who got mad at Hagel when his
Viagra surge was questioned.
McCain - his claim to fame is he was a POW, there were over 700 in all, name a second one?, he became a POW when his 5th jet crashed. He's done nothing to warrant any "hero" status. As a bad pilot and later commanded a unit of about 200 he has no experience as a commander of a large force. Him talking about needing a surge in Iraq or speaking of ground operations in Iraq or Afghanistan is absurd. He never was consulted about ground tactics, has no experience in doing so. His military experience ended in 1980, any ground tactics he could have come in contact would have changed since. There's no bigger empty suit in Congress and it's bewildering why the networks take his word as the ultimate man of knowledge. Hagel was on the ground in Vietnam, John fly over it, until shot down. I wouldn't be surprised if a U.S. pilot shot him down under orders. After all, he lost 5 jets in 8 years. The country couldn't afford to keep him in the air. Then he picked Bubbles from Alaska to be V.P. candidate. He couldn't have picked a less informed governor. McCain's a buffoon on his best day. McCain's statement shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
He was shot down on his 23rd bombing mission- when you spend 6 years in a POW camp, 2 of which were in solitary confinement. When you are beaten and tortured brutally, we will celebrate you and your life accomplishments until then, stifle yourself.
McCain's been a screwball his entire life. He's "great accomplishment" was getting shot down. Without that he'd be a lousy beer salesman for his wife's company. He's a boob.