John McCain's Character

Russel Baker's column in today's New York Times made a brief reference to a "crude joke" that John McCain "notoriously told about Janet Reno, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton."

The incident occurred in June 1998:

at a Republican Senate fund-raiser, McCain told a downright nasty joke making fun of Janet Reno, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.

The fact that McCain had made the tasteless joke was reported in major newspapers, as was the vain attempt by his press secretary to initially deny what McCain had done. But in several major newspapers, the joke itself was kept a secret. When McCain subsequently apologized to President Clinton, the Washington Post, in its personality section, noted the apology but said the joke "was too vicious to print."

I remember this vaguely because I recall that at the time I was mystified by the media's rare exercise of restraint and self-censorship. These are, after all, the same media outlets that reported the story of Monica Lewinsky and the cigar.

The Los Angeles Times, in its Life & Style section, provided an oblique rendering of the joke that did not fully convey its ugliness. When Maureen Dowd penned a column in the New York Times about the joke, she wrote that McCain "is so revered by the press that his disgusting jape was largely nudged under the rug." But Dowd chose not to relay the joke, either.

The joke did appear in McCain's hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain's words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender.

Salon feels its readers deserve the unadulterated truth. Though no tape of McCain's quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

"A Joke to Bad to Print?" published at Salon.com

Yes, it's very un-PC. It's rabidly homophobic. Its anti-feminist. Big deal.

What really bothers me is that the subject of McCain's joke was an 18 year old child, who was guilty only of being the daughter of a man who's politics he disagreed with. Does a man who tells jokes about the CHILDREN of his adversaries really have the moral backbone that John McCain claims?

What kind of a man would really find that funny, and worse, worthy of repeating, except with utter contempt?

When Clinton was first elected in 1992, how many right-wing flamers in internet chat rooms loved to make jokes about Chelsea's appearance. At the time she was only 12, and even then I thought how horrible can these people be to taunt a 12 year old girl they've never even met because they don't like her father? I expect such behavior from children, but not adults.

It is shocking that McCain belabored this sorry, sorry, joke as late as 1998.

But then, he offered up his wife to be "Miss Buffalo Chip" two weeks ago.

Some people never learn.