John McCain to Murtha: 'Lighten Up,' 'Get a Life'

[underpants]

Source: ABC News



April 26, 2007 — Sen. John McCain, who officially announced his bid for the 2008 White House Wednesday, stopped by "Good Morning America" to talk about his campaign and ended up defending himself about a joke.

The Arizona Republican said that people upset by his comments about IEDs to Jon Stewart on Tuesday night's "Daily Show" should "lighten up." After being grilled by Stewart , McCain jokingly told him that he had a present for him — an IED that he could place under his desk.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., was furious and publicly assailed McCain on the House floor.

"Imagine a presidential candidate making a joke about IEDs when our kids are getting blown up," he said.

"I don't know how to react to that kind of hysteria to a comedy show," he told Diane Sawyer on "GMA." "All I'm going to say to Murtha and others. … Lighten up and get a life."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3082244

[TwilightGardener]

1. Wow. If there is a pile, McCain will step in it.

[underpants]

2. This is the second time in a week he has used the "Get a life" line

First was his singing of the 70's joke song "Bomb Iran" ( a takeoff on the the Beach Boys "Barbarann") now this.

When I saw it I thought "Did he just tell an IED joke? There ARE IED jokes?!?!?"

I saw him and his wife on CNN this morning so he clearly is making the rounds.

[calimary]

38. Oh, mccain will "get a life," alright. OUT of public office.

His campaign for president is stillborn. And I doubt Arizona is gonna renew his lease after that. Hell, I wouldn't want this aging, unstable boor representing me. And he's only getting older, not younger, which means it's likely he will have more irresponsible and increasingly addled responses. Yes, there will be some who will just love this (YAWN...) "maverick" :eyes: and his "tellin' it like it is," but their numbers are dwindling, too. He's done too much by now to stick both feet in his increasingly large mouth to remain politically viable for much longer. This might be survivable if he was in his 50's or even '60's. But he's too old for this, and getting older (and sounding more unreliable and unstable) every day.

[Scairp]

52. I think he sounds senile

I really do. He wasn't this careless with his comments eight years ago, so surely the years have taken a toll on his mental faculties. It proves he's too old, on top of just plain incompetent, to hold ANY public office, let alone president. He should retire.

[cain_7777]

15. McCain is the pile

I'm sure if Kerry said anything near the IED joke McCain used the right would be up in arms accusing Kerry of being an actual terrorist. Filthy swine!

[Javaman]

17. he has shit seeking shoes. nt

[Kikosexy2]

29. Insane McCain...

keep it up...so all your opponents can use these moronic ditties against you...Hey, if you don't like it...lighten up!....

[EnviroBat]

37. McCain IS a pile...

[AnneD]

3. To someone that is passionate about something....

that is the worst thing you can say. Murtha is the military's go to guy. McCain might of well as kicked the troops in the gut. He is showing the same callous disreguard that our 'War pRESIDENT' does. As ex Military-I am pissed.

[TwilightGardener]

10. Right--Murtha has made this war his mission--he is sincere in his

efforts to end it, and McCain should have quietly accepted being called out on his stupid joke and let the matter drop, but noooo...

[underpants]

18. Murtha also appears to be the official leak or spokesman of the Pentagon

I say "appears" only to be fair.

There really is no doubt that the brass is talking through him and always have been. There is an oft told story that was repeated in "Fiasco" that the brass sees politicians and appointees as short term employees-it is okay to basically ignore them because they won't around too long. For all the supposed support W has in the rank and file the top brass is a whole other entity.

[Virginia Dare]

4. He's clearly gone over the edge...

there's no other explanation for it. His handlers are doing a very poor job, they really need to reign him in, or he'll be gone from the Presidential field by August.

[pwb]

5. McCain was shot down in his first month at sea.

Another senators son failed pilot. in my opinion he was to healthy looking compared to the other Vietnam prisoners released.

he is more of a failure than a hero. just saying.

[Psephos]

8. Appalling

McCain may be a complete political ass, but you make only one person look small and slimy with your insinuations against him as a prisoner of war: you.

I don't venerate McCain as a hero, but I don't question that when asked, he gave more than any ten of the rest of us.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

44. Oh lighten up.

[Psephos]

49. As Radiohead said, "Karma police, arrest this man." lol

An entertaining comment indeed from a true master of faux outrage.

[roguevalley]

53. So, he made it through a prison camp. I salute him for that just as

I salute everyone ever locked up in a war that suffered, some of them by enormous diameters bigger than John. But being a pow doesn't mitigate anything. If you're a dick, you're a dick. He should be
bigger than the moment but he isn't. He sold his soul to be prez and he will do ANYTHING, including
hugging and supporting the man who slandered his daughter -W- and so he gets no slack nor respect.
He's running for prez. Words count.

[TwilightGardener]

9. No, he was a hero, and nothing he does now takes that away from

him. Don't swiftboat him and diminish his service and sacrifice--he endured far more than many of us could have, and he enabled other POW's to go home before him--that is a hero.

[rcdean]

22. But getting shot down doesn't make you an expert on war...

which he poses as.

[TwilightGardener]

23. True--I don't think serving in the military makes you a war expert,

but it does give you more credibility than someone who didn't, I guess.

[acmavm]

25. You're right. He did serve, unlike most republics. And he built a national

name for himself as a POW. His main claim to fame is he got caught by the enemy. Then he came back here and took that new-found fame and got into politics and promptly started selling himself to the highest bidder, in his case Charles Keating.

<snip>

The Keating Five (or Keating Five Scandal) refers to a Congressional scandal related to the collapse of most of the Savings and Loan institutions in the United States in the late 1980s.

Following the deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980s, savings and loan associations (also known as thrifts) were given the flexibility to invest their depositors' funds in commercial real estate. (Previously, they had been restricted to investing in residential real estate.) Many savings and loan associations began making risky investments. As a result, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the federal agency that regulates the industry, tried to clamp down on the trend. In so doing, however, the FHLBB clashed with the Reagan administration, whose policy was deregulation of many industries, including the thrift industry. The administration declined to submit budgets to Congress that would request more funding for the FHLBB's regulatory efforts.

In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln's chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift's failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him. Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $1.3 million (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating.

This allegation set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee's investigation focused on five senators: Alan MacG. Cranston (D-Calif.); Dennis W. DeConcini (D-Ariz.); John H. Glenn Jr. (D-Ohio); John McCain (R-Ariz.); and Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich), who became known as the Keating Five.

-MORE-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

[rcdean]

51. But John Murtha DID serve in ground combat

That means you get up close and personal with the locals, with villagers and peasants and people just trying to live who witness the destruction we bring to their communities and homes and families supposedly in their names.

You get a real powerful understanding for the fact that unless you're making life better--not worse--for the locals, they will hate you, and rightly so.

McCain and the Bushies have no understanding of this. They think we can just shove whatever we want down the throats of the Iraqis and they'll bow down to us and take it.

Not gonna happen. Not now. Not ever!

[yy4me]

6. I feel McCain should retire before he ruins the image he has

as a Vietnam war hero. As he is progressing now, he will self-destruct and admiration for him will disappear. He has, like a lot of old-timers, slowed down. Most of us recognize it. Some are too stubborn, sort of like trying to get an old timer to finally stop driving. Danger to self and others.

[Massachusetts]

7. Sen. McCain's boat has drifted away from its mooring.

Every week he loses more respect because of the foolish statements he makes.

[Phredicles]

11. Stephanie Miller was asking this morning if McCain was TRYING to

sabotage his own candidacy. If wonder if, even at least subconsciously, he's disgusted at what he's allowed himself to become. Cetainly he should be.

[VaYallaDawg]

12. I'm starting to think McCain is one of the best assets we Dems have.

He can drain plenty of GOP dollars into his campaign and round up the "loyal conservatives" - then, lo and behold, his runaway mouth leaves them all holding the bag and standing in the lurch. I'm really starting to wonder if he isn't drifting into the twilight zone.

[gratuitous]

13. Lighten up - IEDs are funny!

And so are "tiger cages," right John? Heck, if you can't even joke about the accommodations at the Hanoi Hilton anymore, what is there left of comedy? And maimed soldier jokes are a scream! You should see them all waving their crutches at Walter Reed when I go into my riffs about pissing the bed because you can't move. Everybody loves that kind of humor, except the old fuddy-duddies like Murtha.

[Cass]

14. When he said he wanted to kick the dog on the way in my jaw fell open.

After McCain's IED comment, Jon Stewart said that's why we have the dog here and McCain said he wanted to kick the dog on the way in. Really bizarre and disturbing comments from McCain on that show.

I'm glad Murtha spoke out about the IED comment - his comments were spot on.

[LibDemAlways]

16. McCain will never live this one down.

Everything else is just icing on the cake. This pathetic fool will never be President.

[tblue37]

30. It's like the Lieberman smooch. (eom)

[LibDemAlways]

33. If the repukes are stupid enough to nominate this guy,

they are literally creating the Dems' best ad. Just plaster that picture all over the place. No text necessary.

[chieftain]

19. Those Americans and Iraqis killed by IED's would love to

"get a life" but thanks to fools and war-mongers like McCain they can't.

[tabasco]

57. How true. This is about as funny as Bush's WMD skit.

I know a former republican whose last straw was Bush's skit looking for WMD in his office.

[chelsea0011]

20. So if McCain had just visited Auschwitz and came on the show

and said to Jon Stewart, "Here. I brought you back an oven", we should all just lighten up if we are offended? What a nut case.

[rcdean]

21. McCain has NO experience in ground combat. He's clueless.

He spent all his time either several thousand feet in the air (except during bombing runs) or in an NVA prison.

Now he parades as a great authority on war. He is a fake, a sham and a fool.

[classysassy]

48. Something

in common with our great leader.Flying high above the fray,and clueless.

[Beausoir]

24. The Straight Jacket Express.

[LibDemAlways]

34. Good one. LOL

[closeupready]

26. I can't believe he said that.

n/t

[Zenlitened]

27. The man's gone daffy.

I've never been a fan -- I think he's been a hoax for many years now, living off a reputation earned long ago and no longer deserved.

But wow. He's really plunging to new depths lately. Another political figure intent on destroying any positive legacy he might have left.

[seriousstan]

28. Mc Cain made a joke on a joke news show??? DAMN HIM!!!!!

[tblue37]

31. His joke was of the same caliber as Bush's jokes about

looking for WMDs. That little sketch was performed at a WH Correspondents' Dinner, a place where everyone jokes around, but that doesn't make the callousness any less repugnant.

One of the reasons Bush, McCain, and other powerful supporters and/or architects of this criminal war should steer away from such jokes is that they are themselves responsible for policies that keep American troops exposed to IEDs. They have no right to make light of what they should feel as a heavy, solemn responsibility. But if they recognized the seriousness of that responsibility in the first place, they would never have been willing to use Amerrican troops as fodder for their political campaigns.

[seriousstan]

35. I guess I just don't agree with the jackbooted joke police.

[underpants]

36. Please no fantasy pictures

We don't allow sex threads on DU. If this is the sort of thing that gets you off go find some other forum to post them on.

Run along now adult are discussing serious matters.

[porque no]

39. Bwahahahahaha

I'm afraid it's business as usual for seriousguy, wrong.

[seriousstan]

40. Try not to soil yourself, it will only anger the high horse you are on.

[underpants]

41. Lighten up

It's JUST A JOKE!

[seriousstan]

42. Now you understand my position, it was only a joke. Lighten up.

Funny how that all works out. Jokes are jokes, especially on a joke news show.

[Psephos]

60. Lol

Reminds me of this one.

?v=0

Anyway, glad to see your reality-based posts. They're in rather short supply on this thread.

[Bucky]

32. You know who else should've gotten a life? About 3300 US troops sent to an early demise in Iraq

Sadly, their lives were taken by a war that should never have happened and an occupation that been criminally mismanaged.

[closeupready]

43. That's why it's absolutely not funny. War is not funny.

When the cost of this war is measured partially in American lives, it saddens me that we have to argue as to why jokes about aspects of the war from someone who wants to be in charge of the military are completely inappropriate, wrong and not funny. In my mind, the seriousness of the war is obvious. How can people not get that?

[Mad_Dem_X]

50. Exactly!

"Get a life," indeed. McCain is a lunatic.

[damntexdem]

45. An appropriate response to McCain:

"Get serious! Save many lives!"

[damntexdem]

46. An appropriate response to McCain:

"Get serious! Save many lives!"

[truthisfreedom]

47. I have a feeling that McCain's "style" of humor during wartime just doesn't sit well with your

average American. Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran... I have an IED you can place under your desk... His sort of light-hearted fancy-free "war is no big deal" approach is a little too twilight-zone-ish for the times.

[Lilith Velkor]

54. Lilith Velkor to McCain: 'Fuck Off' and 'Die'

Go do some more shopping in Baghdad, you twat! :nuke:

[Jacobin]

55. McCain's passive-aggressive behavior is showing

He's pretty fucked up. that's obvious.

He has no business in public life

[City Lights]

56. McCain is a prick.

A bat-shit-crazy-assholian prick who can go fuck himself. I'm :blush: to admit there was a day when I respected him.

[Missy Vixen]

58. Just wondering

Let's say the shoe was on the other foot, and Jon Stewart said roughly the same thing to McCain.

Is it not against the law to threaten a public official? I believe that comment would be perceived as a threat. Why does McCain think it's funny?

Julie

[fujiyama]

59. Jon Stewart should have said

"Hey I have some towels - from the Hanoi Hilton".

McCain is no longer funny or charming in any way. Notice how no one laughed at his "joke".