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McCain Drops F-Bomb On Senator When Confronted With Recent Absences

Busy campaigning for his presidential bid, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has missed over 40 consecutive roll-call votes, going five straight weeks “without casting a vote on the Senate floor.”

Yesterday, after apparently skipping most of the extended closed-door White House/Senate immigration negotiations, McCain “suddenly re-emerged” to take part in the press conference announcing the deal.

This isn’t sitting well with McCain’s colleagues. Tonight, Fox News correspondent Major Garrett reported that “anger burst forth memorably and loudly” when Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) accused McCain of being “too busy running for president.” McCain responded by using “the f-word toward Cornyn,” though it’s not clear “if the f-word was a verb or a gerund.”

Watch it:

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[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/05/mccainfbomb.320.240.flv]

Maybe McCain should take his own advice and “lighten up.

Digg It!UPDATE: Apparently it wasn’t just the f-word:

At a bipartisan gathering in an ornate meeting room just off the Senate floor, McCain complained that Cornyn was raising petty objections to a compromise plan being worked out between Senate Republicans and Democrats and the White House. He used a curse word associated with chickens and accused Cornyn of raising the issue just to torpedo a deal.

Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said to McCain. “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.”

McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).

“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn.

Transcript:

GARRETT: As this deal was being brokered behind the scenes, Fox News has learned, Republican anger burst forth memorably and loudly. Arizona’s John McCain and Texas’ John Cornyn argued over the compromise. McCain accused Cornyn of trying to sabotage it. Cornyn told McCain he wasn’t around to negotiate, too busy running for president. McCain, Fox News has been told, used the f-word toward Cornyn. We just can’t be sure if the f-word was a verb or a gerund.