Today an audacious member of a McCainiac townhall audience Iowa finally asked McCain "the question." It was a query he has been able to avoid so far, simply by besmirching my character and hiding behind his bevy of underpaid hacks. Did he or did he not refer to his wife with an expletive in 1992 in front of the press and male aides of his, as I reported in my book The Real McCain? Well, today McCain’s media holiday on this subject came to end, with an everyday person taking democracy into their own hands and asking him to answer for his behavior. Not that he would lower himself to being held accountable — it was at best a non-denial:

Audience member: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I’ve been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?

McCain: Now, now. You don’t want to… Um, you know that’s the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don’t, there’s people here who don’t respect that kind of language. So I’ll move on to the next questioner in the back.

My book broke three major stories, all of which lead to many questions about the character of John Sidney McCain III. In addition to the above dodge and weave, he initially denied a story that he got into a brawl with Congressman Rick Renzi in 2006 on FoxNews, only to have his underlings make a liar out of him when they partially admitted to it later in a Washington Post Story.

Finally, when it comes to another report from my book first reported by the fine folks here at FDL, that McCain tried to get former Common Cause President Chellie Pingree fired from her job because she was, you know, actually in favor of reform, he again denied the story. This even though Pingree and an additional source, Mark Schmitt fully backed up my account. Again, when politically convenient, the "straight-talker" lies.

In fact, it is so hard to keep track of McCain, that I am going to start doing it regularly. Here. At FDL. That’s right, get ready next week for the opening salvos of Cliff Schecter’s Campaign Silo. We’ll talk politics. Campaign politics. And hopefully the world will never be the same…

Update: The guy who asked the question, Baptist minister Marty Parish, was thrown out by the police and Secret Service.  And Cliff gets a shout-out in the WSJ — jh


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