McCain jokes about waterboarding his staff.
By on Feb 20th, 2008 at 11:23 am
McCain jokes about waterboarding his staff.
The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza recounts a moment on the Straight Talk Express with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ):
At one moment, bursting into laughter, he exuberantly explains why, after “a short period of waterboarding to find out what they did in their absence,” he would take back some of the staffers who fled his campaign at its low point.
Recently, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee joked that “running for office is sort of like being waterboarded” and last year, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said he was “getting tortured running for president of the United States.”
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At least GOOPers will be getting the S&M vote…
February 20th, 2008 at 11:24 amAnother Geritol moment?
February 20th, 2008 at 11:26 amThese people (and I use that term loosely) are sick!
February 20th, 2008 at 11:27 amI sometimes wonder what a young McCain would think, of seeing himself say such things.
Does he even remember what happened to the others he was imprisoned with? Why aren’t we hearing from them? Do they agree with his sudden embrace of torture as an interrogation technique?
February 20th, 2008 at 11:29 amGood diary up on Daily Kos about McCain’s wife’s painkiller addictions, embezzelment from her charity and how she scuttled the whole thing (which had been covered up) by retaliating against the former head of the charity. Nice stuff…
http://www.dailykos.com/ storyonly/ 2008/ 2/ 20/ 64612/ 4690/ 438/ 460265
February 20th, 2008 at 11:29 amWhy does the GOP think waterboarding/torture is a joke?
I went through it in S.E.R.E., and I can tell you it is no joke.
Having experienced it, if anyone were to waterboard me again, they had better just kill me afterwards, because if I ever got my hands on them they won’t get a chance to regret it.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:31 amRe CitDC, yeah, that’s some disturbing stuff. I guess that is the America she’s proud of. The one where the rich and connected can scam the poor with no reprecussions.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:32 amprogrammed DE-sensitizing…
it should work on the con-bots…
February 20th, 2008 at 11:32 amDoes he even remember what happened to the others he was imprisoned with? Why aren’t we hearing from them? Do they agree with his sudden embrace of torture as an interrogation technique?
Comment by barfly
How about the fact that McCain is damaged goods, literally. From torture, to isolated imprisonment, this guy certainly suffering from severe permanent PTSD, which has many, many negative ramifications for the sane mind.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:33 amWhy does the GOP think waterboarding/torture is a joke?
Comment by Wayne
I think they are trying to desentisize(spelling)us. So that we will be more willing to accept it…….it is insane..
February 20th, 2008 at 11:33 amMcCain continues to disappoint me. It was only a few months ago that I respected McCain’s principled stance on torture. He called it what it was and most certainly treated it seriously. Joking about it was the last thing he would have done.
Now he has abandoned one of his core issues (and one of the few where I agreed with him) merely to whore himself to the far right.
So sad.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:34 amFred, Wayne… I find it repulsive that we even need to discuss whether or not it’s torture. Shows you how far some folks have drifted off their moral bearings.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:35 amWE
TRUE
AMERICANS
NEVER
JOKE
ABOUT
TORTURE!
This is so flippin’ ridiculous! To try to degenerate the term torture to humorous status is, quite frankly, unacceptable!
February 20th, 2008 at 11:36 amI guess, as long as we keep downplaying it, the more mainstream and unharmful it will become? BULL$HIT!
Again, a human with a caring soul, would find joking about any such torture, unacceptable! Of course, John was able to conform to the right after the ridiculous attacks on him in 2000, so I guess, torture is no longer a painful memory to him, eh?
The McCain campaign must have no plan to take their case to the voters this fall, they seek to win with only 5 ballots. The other 3 will find their tires slashed on the day of voting, so the can’t make it to the courthouse.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:36 amFU
February 20th, 2008 at 11:36 amHow about the fact that McCain is damaged goods, literally. From torture, to isolated imprisonment, this guy certainly suffering from severe permanent PTSD, which has many, many negative ramifications for the sane mind.
Comment by DieNowForPeace — February 20, 2008 @ 11:33 am
No, IMHO McCain is suffering from the disease called pandering.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:36 amMcWar is unsuited to be president :
http://www.amconmag.com/2008/2008_02_11/cover.html
February 20th, 2008 at 11:43 amWhat drives me over the edge is that the media calls it “waterboarding” which sounds benign (who’s afraid of water, it’s such an innocuous word). The media should call it for what it is: torture. Period. No shades of grey.
If the media is gun shy about using the word torture to describe waterboarding, because its US/GOP proponents have used it and resist being held accountable, I’d simply point the media to international law and history, both of which show that waterboarding has been torture for centuries and illegal for many decades. Indeed, it is a war crime.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:45 amMcWar is going to get his ass whooped in Nov.!!!!
February 20th, 2008 at 11:45 amFred, Wayne… I find it repulsive that we even need to discuss whether or not it’s torture. Shows you how far some folks have drifted off their moral bearings.
Comment by The Republic of Stupidity — February 20, 2008 @ 11:35 am
The “debate” is manufactured. Waterboarding has been prosecuted by this country as a crime since we prosecuted our own soldiers in the Philippine occupation (1898 to 1911).
Thats over a century of legal president set.
The fact that there is even a false “debate” is repulsive.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:45 amWhat’s next?
“Don’t make me have to stick things under your fingernails!”
Our good chief justice Scalia:
‘“Seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is, it would be absurd to say that you can’t stick something under the fingernails, smack them in the face,†Scalia responded.’
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/12/scalia-torture/
February 20th, 2008 at 11:46 amI really have no problem with the jokes McCain has been saying about torture. I was a prosecutor and I can tell you that you do very well develop a gallows humor.
The incidents really just show someone who does not exercise a lot of common sense in making statements in public. This is what concerns me concerning the incidents. Just as his hair trigger temper (something I also suffer from, however, I neither desire nor would be qualified to be President - dictator, yes) really makes one wonder as to whether he would be able to draw together an effective team or work well with others (Congress.) However, we would all want someone with such a temper with his finger on the nuclear button.
- His hypocrisy should concern us all - the trophy wife and divorce - tend to be historical in nature by itself. The straight talk express that seems to be fueled by convenient flip flops in position and pandering.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:48 amI guess if you’re a repukian scumlord then, yeah, running for president would be torture because you are SO GONNA LOSE, HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
GO OBAMA GO!!! HILLARY IS TOAST, McINSANE IS BURNT TOAST.
Buck Fush
February 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am“I really have no problem with the jokes McCain has been saying about torture. I was a prosecutor and I can tell you that you do very well develop a gallows humor. ”
And convenient amnesia for the suffering of the guys he served with. Nothing like belittling their sacrifice. That’s a little bit different, don’t you think?
February 20th, 2008 at 11:54 amThe real reason McCain has to talk about waterboarding his staff, or former staff, is that no one would join his campaign in the first place without the threat of torture.
McCain is featured in this Oscar parody as the star of a nominated film:
Check it out.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:55 amWhat drives me over the edge is that the media calls it “waterboarding†which sounds benign (who’s afraid of water, it’s such an innocuous word). The media should call it for what it is: torture. Period. No shades of grey.
Comment by JaneDoe — February 20, 2008 @ 11:45 am
It used to be called the “water cure” when not called water torture. How benign was that?
A rose by any other name, and all that……
February 20th, 2008 at 11:58 amThe fact that there is even a false “debate†is repulsive.
Comment by Wayne — February 20, 2008 @ 11:45 am
Yup, yes, and yeah…
February 20th, 2008 at 12:10 pmI am assuming Obama is going to be the nominee. It will be interesting to see the stark contrast :
a young, vibrant, intelligent, forward thinker
and propped up beside him will be senile, violent-tempered and OLD McWar, himself.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:10 pmResponse to comment 24
You and I are on the same side as progressives and (most likely) Democrats. There are such better issues to attack McCain on. I really do mean it about the gallows humor. I speak as a person who did stand over the bodies of those murdered in my jurisdiction. We cracked jokes that (quite frankly) I am embarrassed to remember. Most people in high pressure situations do crack bad jokes. McCain is no different. It is his inability to understand the bad taste of doing this in public that attacks his judgment to be president. I think that it is a sign of old senility.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pmI find it extremely unseemly for anyone to speak of torture in such a casual manner as these rethugs.
McCain, of all people, should be more sensitive, but apparently when he sold his soul , his sensitivity went also.
Today I heard a clip from McCain condemning Castro and his treatment of prisoners — if he doesn’t hear what his lips are saying, shouldn’t someone tug at his sleeve and tell him to shut up?
On the other hand, let everyone see how ridiculous are the Repugs.
Huckabee and Giulliani are both just too ignorant to take their stupid remarks seriously — they expose themselves as the fools they are.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:18 pmMcBush is nuts.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:19 pmComment by JMOHR —
My assertion is that McCain might be numbed to his own previous suffering, but that he’s showing a politically convenient amnesia to the sacrifices of the guys he was imprisoned with, by making statements like this. And I fail to see how your personal experiences are relevant, unless both you, and fellow prosecutors were the victims in crimes. It is an inapt comparison.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:23 pmDoes this mean McCain will start wearing V-necked sweaters again?
February 20th, 2008 at 12:23 pmHe’ll need all the help he can get, he shouldn’t be threatening any sucker who wants to join him on his sled ride down to oblivion.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:30 pmThis campaign to the General Election is going to be hilarious. Imagine how many times we’ll get to see McMaverick step in it between now and November. Not to mention he’ll have to get his botox job freshened up a couple of times in the interim - he should’ve used the same Dr. that Cindy does - somebody’s maintaining her at the highest standards of cougar-dom.
Can’t wait to see McMaverick stutter and stammer searching for answers at the debate podium, while Obama carves circles around him, praising and honoring his service. Mc will be out-classed, out-gunned, and out-spent, and help finish off the GOP franchise for the foreseeable future.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:50 pmCan’t wait to see McMaverick stutter and stammer searching for answers at the debate podium
Comment by tombaker — February 20, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
Do you think he’ll wear an earpiece for coaching during debates?
February 20th, 2008 at 12:58 pm.
Welcome to the normalization of TORTURE.
.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:15 pmC’mon, TP, it was just a joke. And CitiDC, who refers to Mrs. McCain’s addiction, why don’t you go after her for having a stroke as well?
http://www.newsprism.wordpress.com
February 20th, 2008 at 4:08 pmAnd yet there were many jokes about waterboarding republicans on this very site. HYPOCRISY at it’s very best. I lost count on how many wanted to waterboard O’Reiley, Coulter, and that crowd. Start with your own peers and work your way down. But that will never happen, will it? “Again, a human with a caring soul, would find joking about any such torture, unacceptable!†But republicans are fair targets. It was a joke people.
Comment by Southern Man
those were not jokes……they were responses to people joking about waterboarding people…..you know that and still you distort. Your people are the ones that find it amusing so don’t try to smear your shit on us.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:46 pm