McCain: "I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live."

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."

McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur.

...

The word "g0ok" was first used in 1899 by American soldiers fighting Filipino insurgents. During the Korean War, the term was aimed at Koreans and Chinese. It was directed at the Vietnamese when Americans were fighting in Vietnam. It is now used as a slur toward any Asian or Pacific Islander.

...

The horrors of the past cannot be an excuse for hurting people in the present, said Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, an anti-defamation group.

"If Sen. McCain had been captured by Nigerians, could he call those people `niggers' and think he wasn't going to offend everyone who is black?" Akoi asked.

...

McCain said he does not consider the comment an epithet.

"G0ok," he said, "is the kindest appellation I can give."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../18/MN32194.DTL

[SMOKE 1,426]

isn't this like the 10th time you posted this?

[Jenn! 918]

By yesterday, you mean February 17, 2000. Thanks for keeping us up-to-date with this breaking news, again.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

He has yet to repudiate his use of the slur. He is a presidential candidate now so it was time.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Followed by, ' nuke the rez ' ....

[Sinergy 3]

i dont care how old this is, it still and always will bother me

[Peikko 1,575]

What a silly thread.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

I think at this point, he could claim that he doesn't remember saying it--and not be lying.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Big Agnes!

[SMOKE 1,426]

i dont care how old this is, it still and always will bother me

nothing bothers me more than obama's pastor & the "GD America"& "blame whitey" BS. except for the fact it took him a month or so after the big media brohaahaa over it the 2nd time to cut ties w/ him.

[Sinergy 3]

This whole presidential race thing this time bothers me

[rclouse 0]

I'm no McCain supporter (McCain 2000 yes, 2008 no way) but the man has earned the right to call his captors and torturers any damn name he wants.

IMO this is a non issue.

[metta 0]

"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."

McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur.

...

The word "g0ok" was first used in 1899 by American soldiers fighting Filipino insurgents. During the Korean War, the term was aimed at Koreans and Chinese. It was directed at the Vietnamese when Americans were fighting in Vietnam. It is now used as a slur toward any Asian or Pacific Islander.

...

The horrors of the past cannot be an excuse for hurting people in the present, said Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, an anti-defamation group.

"If Sen. McCain had been captured by Nigerians, could he call those people `niggers' and think he wasn't going to offend everyone who is black?" Akoi asked.

...

McCain said he does not consider the comment an epithet.

"G0ok," he said, "is the kindest appellation I can give."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../18/MN32194.DTL

I agree with rlouse.

This is a cheap shot taken by a twit/cheap-wannabe-hotshot-reporter.

If anybody had been in captivity as McCain was, let alone endure the physical torture that McCain did, he/she would not sloop so low to use this against McCain.

He together with Kerry were prime pushers for normalization with Vietnam forvery sound and practical reasons. For that they were castigated by many particularly from families of MIAs who understandably were against the move. It was also a sensitive issue for President Clinton who made a very wise political decision despite the many caveats that came with it. This is a classic example of how political leaders work across partisan lines to bring about something that is in the interest of all involved.

NYT article

By TODD S. PURDUM Published: June 26, 1995 Twenty-six years after he agonized over avoiding service in a war he "opposed and despised," President Clinton is moving toward the end of another agonizing deliberation over Vietnam: how and when to grant the former enemy full diplomatic recognition.

Most of Mr. Clinton's senior diplomatic, military, economic and political advisers favor the move as the next step in a four-year-old process begun by the Bush Administration, aimed at providing the fullest possible accounting for Americans missing from the Vietnam War and at advancing United States business interests in Southeast Asia.

Others, including the President, have hesitated, with Mr. Clinton said to feel that his personal history leaves him imperfectly suited to be the kind of "Nixon in China" figure with the hawkish bona fides to safely end a tortured chapter in domestic American politics and diplomacy.

The political risks are clear enough for a President who wrote a quarter century ago of his determination to "maintain my political viability within the system," while also avoiding military service short of overtly resisting the draft. But in recent weeks, White House aides have increasingly concluded that if Mr. Clinton does not move to normalize relations, his refusal will be interpreted as political and purely personal, creating other risks.

In this view, the fire the President would surely take from conservatives or veterans groups -- who do not support him in any event -- could be offset by praise from others, including decorated war veterans like Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, for taking a principled stand. These advisers point to the quick dissipation of the flurry of criticism that greeted Mr. Clinton's decision last year to lift the 19-year-old economic embargo against Vietnam.

"It's not 'if' anymore," a Presidential adviser said last week. "It's 'when.' This is not something that will be done with any great joy, but something that will be done because it's the right thing to do."

But in the Clinton White House, in particular, no decision is made until the President makes it, and it remains to be seen how Mr. Clinton will go about handling a final decision.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher has already formally recommended the move, and Defense Secretary William J. Perry supports it; the qualms of the national security adviser, Anthony Lake, were said to be lessening after a meeting of the three last week.

Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown and many business executives have also strongly urged the move, arguing that it is the best way to insure American access to emerging markets in Southeast Asia. At least two of the President's longest-serving political advisers also favor the move.

On the other side are some family groups of those missing in action, and a virtual cottage industry of searchers who send missions to Vietnam and lobby for continued Government support in what Congressional critics view as a cynical and self-justifying exploitation of Americans' grief.

A vocal minority of veterans remain traumatized by the war and heavily invested in refighting it by questing after survivors or indulging in Rambo-esque flights of imagined revenge. But one Congressional aide who has worked on the issue for five years said it was an insult to the honor of the vast majority of veterans to suggest that they could not accept Washington's decision to move on.

Those who advocate recognition want Mr. Clinton to announce it by next month, and not wait until the Presidential campaign season gets any closer. There is some time pressure because Mr. Christopher is to attend a conference next month of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as Asean, at which Vietnam is to join the group, and Administration officials would like to have the matter settled by then.

At the same time, just after the Fourth of July Congressional recess, the Senate is expected to take up the State Department's budget authorization, and as part of that debate, two conflicting measures on Vietnam are to be offered. One is a resolution, sponsored by Mr. McCain and two other veterans, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, both Democrats, urging recognition. The other, sponsored by Republican Senators Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire and Bob Dole of Kansas, the majority leader, would withhold financing for any American Embassy in Vietnam.

Some advisers have suggested that the President wait for Mr. McCain's resolution, which is favored to pass, while others are urging that he get ahead of the issue by acting first, with Mr. McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and went to the White House three weeks ago to urge recognition, by his side.

"I have long hoped that's what he'll do," Mr. McCain said in a telephone interview on Friday. "I told him I'd be more than glad to stand next to him while he makes the announcement."

Asked what he thought was holding up a decision, Mr. McCain said, "You know, this Administration is sometimes hard to decipher," but then quickly apologized: "That's kind of a cheap shot. I'm sure given his history, it's a very sensitive decision."

Mr. McCain, who supports normalization as the best way to provide a final accounting of Americans missing from the war, said that in their White House meeting, Mr. Clinton had not tipped his hand. The Senator also said he believed that normalization was the surest way to aid Vietnamese political reforms, and protect American security interests in the region by fostering a strong and economically stable Vietnam.

"His demeanor was one of wanting to be sure he had all the facts," Mr. McCain said. "I didn't sense either eagerness or reluctance. He just seemed to want to get the facts."

Veterans' groups are divided. The national commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Allen F. Kent, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, issued a statement this month saying: "If by normalizing relations with Vietnam we can further the process leading towards the fullest possible accounting, then the V.F.W. will support such a decision. If progress does not continue, we will demand the President and Congress withdraw our Ambassador and close the embassy."

But the American Legion's national commander, William M. Detweiler, wrote the President this month urging him "in the strongest possible terms," not to normalize relations. Mr. Detweiler said "only very minimal progress" had been made in the four main areas cited by Mr. Clinton in 1993 in determining the timetable for recognition.

Those areas are return of human remains, return of documents, field searches and investigations of M.I.A. cases jointly with Laos. Mr. Detweiler wrote, "The continual dribbling out of selected reports to American delegations clearly shows that Hanoi will only release information when doing so suits its own purpose."

Mr. Clinton, in remarks on Memorial Day while unveiling a new postage stamp commemorating P.O.W.'s and M.I.A.'s, spoke warmly of Hanoi's efforts, saying it was providing more cooperation "than ever before" and praising the overall effort to account for those missing in Vietnam. "There is nothing like it in all the history of warfare," Mr. Clinton said.

But groups representing families of the missing have complained that even the most recently released batch of about 150 documents supplied to an American delegation by the Vietnamese this spring does not amount to much, and the Pentagon's P.O.W./M.I.A. office acknowledged that the papers would not immediately resolve any outstanding cases.

Senator McCain noted that the United States spends about $100 million a year on efforts to account for the missing, and that there remain only 55 cases that offer even the slightest hope that the servicemen in question did not die at the moment of their initial loss and that might yet be resolved through cooperation with the Vietnamese.

Senator Kerrey, who lost a leg in Vietnam, said he supported Mr. Christopher's recommendation "as the best means to achieve to goal for which we went there a quarter century ago: the freedom of the Vietnamese people."

"We must return there, heads held high, and say proudly that we fought for the freedom of the Vietnamese people then and will continue to fight for it until it is achieved," Mr. Kerrey said in a statement. "Freedom is the best vehicle for promoting solid relations, both diplomatic and economic, between our peoples."

[Sheriff Uling 3]

I wonder if Sean Hannity will run a special report on what Sen McCain has stated and keep saying it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... Well, you get the point!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I wonder if Sean Hannity will run a special report on what Sen McCain has stated and keep saying it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... Well, you get the point!

LOL...probably not.

[mawilson 2,133]

The gooks tortured Rambo in 'nam - I hate them too!