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A NewsMax.com report about Sen. John McCain’s legendary temper has apparently ruffled the feathers of the probable 2008 presidential candidate.
When NewsMax’s Ronald Kessler, who authored the report, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC show on July 7 to discuss the story, Kessler stated, “Carlson said McCain’s office was very unhappy that he was having me on.”
“I imagine they may have scared off other shows” that might have interviewed Kessler.
In his NewsMax report, Kessler wrote in part: “As portrayed by the mainstream media, McCain is an engaging war hero, a man of political moderation positioned between the left and the right. But to insiders who know him, McCain has an irrational, explosive side that make many of them question whether he is fit to serve as president and be commander in chief.”
Kessler quoted former Senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican who served with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee and on Republican policy committees, as saying: "I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues and exploded at colleagues. He would disagree about something and then explode. It was incidents of irrational behavior.
“We've all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I've never seen anyone act like that."
Kessler’s NewsMax.com article also caught the eye of McCain’s homestate newspaper, the Arizona Republic.
The paper noted that McCain has denied allegations he blows his top, once demanding “some concrete examples of it,” adding “they aren’t there.”
Well, they are there.
Back in 2000, during McCain’s campaign for the Republican nomination for president, he went ballistic during an on-air phone interview with radio personality Michael Reagan. McCain ended up slamming the phone down and hanging up on Reagan.
The two were discussing whom McCain, as president, might appoint to the Supreme Court, and Reagan mentioned that Warren Rudman, McCain’s campaign chair, could be in position to push for a judge “like Judge [David] Souter.”
McCain interrupted Reagan four times with “can I finish?” and said Rudman was “not interested in playing any active role in a McCain administration and I resent enormously phone calls that were made by Pat Robertson saying that he was a vicious bigot.”
When Reagan later tried to shift the discussion to education, McCain said: “Before we go into that, does it disturb you that Pat Robertson would call up people and say that Warren Rudman is a vicious bigot?
NewsMax’s transcript of the interview read:
Reagan: No, Senator, I … Senator, no. Senator, because let me tell you…
McCain: Let me tell you – let me tell you … (unintelligible)
(Senator McCain hangs up abruptly.)
Afterwards Reagan declared: “The man does not have the temperament to be president of the United States.”
Another on-air display of McCain’s wrath came later that year as the candidate was about to deliver his concession speech.
As he walked through the crowd on his way to delivering the speech, NBC’s Maria Shriver asked him: “How do you feel?” McCain spun around and sternly told Shriver: “Please get out of here.”
The rebuke stunned MSNBC anchor Brian Williams.
When NewsMax Magazine ran an in-depth, front-page story in its August 2005 issue, “Inside McCain’s Head,” Paul M. Weyrich – chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation – told NewsMax:
“For years, I’ve heard stories about him throwing things at people and bringing young staffers to tears because he blows up at them.
“He has a seething anger that is very troubling. You can’t have somebody like that as president. You have to have somebody who is stable and can make good judgments.” | 
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