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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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i am sure he meant to imply how the monkey is smarter then that leader but people will take it just the way they want to, i have a lot of black friends and most of them will say a black person is more racist then the average person out their.. i have found out that everybody will say things when upset and if you don't have a education and a job or some age like a senior citizen then i don't care enough about you to worry anyway.
That's funny. Loved it. Can't see anything wrong!
McCain can't get enough of stuffing his foot in his mouth. Joking or not, now is not the time to send incindiary comments from a politician who fancies himself as a relevant player. Several in his own party "get it" better than Mccain does. He's been pouting since the McCain/Palin debacle of 2008, and can't get over being bested by a "community organizer" as he liked to call President Obama. Well, we have the best in President Obama in the White House in these United States. I shudder to think what our situation would be if McCain were to be in the White House. He's another, like G.W.B who likes to shoot from the lip, and by now we would have military involvement in probably another half-dozen countries more than we already are into. I'm surprised that McCain and Carl Rove aren't better cohorts, as they both are about obstructionism and devisiveness. Pshaw!!! Everyone has some qualities.
Could someone explain to me how this was racist, and who it was racist toward??
To a liberal, anyone who disagress with them is either a racist or bigot or heavan forbid.....both! There are no parameters, just simply disagreeing with their version of reality earns you the badge. They are really narrow minded folks who normally appear to be moderately educated and incapable of enjoying anything lighthearted or humorous. The rest of the country hopes so, as we would like to be able to go on our merry way without their constant nagging about meaningless words and statements.
Progressives don't work so they make a big deal out of everything because they're bored.
I do think it's insulting...to the monkey.
Ha...LOL...I agree.
Actually I thought that was pretty funny. The two have comparable facial hair. When was the last time you heard an Iranian being compared to a monkey? It certainly wasn't racist. This just seems like another case of someone trying to make something of nothing. It's like people have too much time on their hands and not enough genuinely offensive things to get offended about so they have to find something.
How did comrade obama take the comment???
I know no one cares, just wondering about his muslim sensibilities???
What is racist...he didn't call him a camel jockey, just a monkey
Ahmadinejad is too short to be a camel jockey...the camel would whip his ass...
The only racist we have right now is the President himself. He hates whites, Jews, christians, Asians, Americans, the list is endless.
Josh - I think you are an idiot & your hate-spewing is senseless.
I think Josh has it right...
He like himself ask him
GiGi you bore me! Everthing I said is true and factual! If you are too blind to see how he feels about Israel then you too are an anti-Semite.
josh
you nailed it,, obama is a racisit,, his wife is even more so,,just wait till his kids grow up...they will be super racisits
Wow Josh "anti-Semite"? why don't you read my post below. Just because I don't agree with your opinion, does not make me an anti-Semite. I'm anti narrow-minded, closed thinking such as yours.
Wow Gigi such name calling. I can't be closed narrow minded when I am a gay Jew!
Josh, if only you knew how pro-gay, pro-Jew, pro-black, pro-anything that is good for the world I am. I just posted on the anti-gay Boy Scouts story that puts gay haters & bashers in their place. I think we can agree to disagree on the Obama issue. My support of Obama does not in anyway make me anti-Sematic as your negative opinion of him make you a hater. Agree?
I don't think an organization of any kind should be forced into allowing someone that in their view does not align with their beliefs. Would the United Negro College Fund allow KKK members to join if they were intent on wearing their white sheets ? Microsoft does not allow white people to join clubs that are for blacks so isn't that racist?
Well, I'm certainly not a McCain or Republican fan as I feel the majority are hypocrites, BUT this was a funny one coming from McCain! :) People, Ahmedinejad is an avowed enemy of this country who would blow the US to sky high if he had the intelligence to do so. He is an avowed Jew hater & we all know where that little belief has led to in the not so far past. I think a monkey comparison is actually a compliment to this mad man. Poor monkey!
Now who is the racist Gigi? You cannot refer to someone as a monkey even if they are the sworn enemy of the United States because that still makes you a racist. You can call him crazy and that is fine because it is the truth. Didn't Jesus say love thy enemy?
Josh, I cannot profess to pretend to love an enemy that would destroy the world I live in. Sorry that would be hypocritical & Lord knows, I'm not known for that - popular opinions or not. It would also make me anti-American. I value too much our way of life and freedoms to allow a (yes) mad man like him to threaten it.
Then how can you be for an individual that is determined to weaken the United States and bypass your constituional rights by outlawing your ability to own a gun? These same tactics that are being used now is exactly how Hungary, Poland, ect... were disarmed before WWll and that enabled a radical view to take hold and exterminate the Jews thruout Europe. It seems that the only individuals that care that this happened are the ones who lost entire families. Anybody that did not or were not affected does not seem to care.
Mc Cain is over.
He had his run. Now can he please find his way to the edges and stop the useless comments from his assumed position of importance in the center of the spotlight?
The little sneaker in Iran might be worthy of ridicule, but that's better left to comedians.
It is sometimes stressful being on the same side of the Mississippi as Sen. McCain. Those who live with him must have incredible fortitude.
Naw Mick we just thank out lucky stars we don't have to live near you.
Note to many of you posting here: Get off the caffeine, before you blow an artery. There has to be something better to do with your time than looking for things to be offended about.
McCain is just a WAR CRIMINAL.. he was captured by Vietnamese people as he was on his way to bomb a civilian power plan... ... his GOP party is a RACIST brother party of the KKK - in a few yrs no one would know what GOP stands for...
rrrrriiiiiggggggghhhhtttt
Iran's leader should be so lucky to be as high on the chain as a monkey...
Or maybe we should make jokes about how they put out cigarette butts on your anus. That sounds pretty funny to me. Ahhhh Geeesh, I just got a mental picfure. Seeing you naked and screaming has made my day. And my car just crawled into the crawl space and refuses to come out.
The only way to truly know if he is a monkey is to find out if he hurls his own poop at you !
If you are looking for a good joke, look no further than the White House. For liberals, snake oil never tasted so good.
This evil man calls others monkeys and apes. He calls US the great Satan...yet the liberal media wants to point a finger at others who do not look at this WICKED man favorably. UNREAL.
Mc Cain is (besides some others) pretty much the only creature in the GOP, who should keep his stupid mouth shut, period!
A man, who is proud of dropping napalm on women and children in Vietnam, killing lots of innocent people and calling himself a war hero... is nothing but disgusting !
you might add Biden to shut his trap
I thought the very same thing as McCain last night when i heard about the Iranian leaders wants.
I'd have a beer with McCain over Obama any day.
because you're as retarded, as Mc Cain :-)
Obama seems as much fun as underwear made out of ground glass. I live in an area and am part of a profession that attracts a lot of Progressives. Every business function is like being put in a 4 foot square metal box in the blazing California sun. Progressives as fun people make Mormons seem like rock stars.
Something is seriously wrong with McCain's head. He didn't used to be so flaky. Honest, sure, but not flaky. This is not the John McCain who ran for president in 2000.
I'm no fan of the Iranian government, either, but there's no point in just deliberately sabotaging any chances at negotiating our way out of a war, no matter how remote those chances may appear.
I'm with MCcain on this one, and that runt that is the leader of Iran reminds me of monkey, except a monkey would probably have better groomed beard. Why would anyone defend that little man who speaks so much hatred, is beyond me.
We have become a society that no longer uses logic, reason, or experience to deal with our issues. Instead, we belittle, dismiss, call names, or dodge the issue by raising political claims. We claim racism, sexism, or homophobia so often that these phrases have been diluted into nonsense.
I hope we can turn this around but it only seems to be getting worse.
I concur. We need to place them in a time machine and send thm back to the old Democratically Controlled South, where they could experience real racism.
McCain insulted a man, not a race. Do people not realize that one man is not a race of people? And besides, the insulted man deserves to be insulted. I am more concerned about the feelings of the monkey!