Nowhere is that sentiment stronger than in the Senate, where McCain has few friends or supporters. In fact, when McCain ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2000, only four Republican senators endorsed him.
"I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues and exploded at colleagues," former Sen. Bob Smith told me for the article. A New Hampshire Republican, Smith served with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on a select committee on POWs missing in action, and on Republican policy committees.
"He would disagree about something and then explode," Smith said. "[There were] incidents of irrational behavior. We've all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I've never seen anyone act like that."
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"He had very few friends in the Senate," said former Sen. Smith, who dealt with McCain daily. "He has a lot of support around the country, but I don't think he has a lot of support from people who know him well."
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"People who disagree with him get the f*** you," said former Rep. John LeBoutillier, a New York Republican who had an encounter with McCain when he was on a POW task force in the House. "I think he is mentally unstable and not fit to be president."
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Democrat Paul Johnson, the former mayor of Phoenix, saw McCain's temper up close.
"His volatility borders in the area of being unstable," Johnson has said. ""Before I let this guy put his finger on the button, I would have to give considerable pause."
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In 1992, Robin Silver and Bob Witzeman, both medical doctors, met with McCain at his Phoenix office to discuss the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. At the mention of the issue, McCain erupted.
"He slammed his fists on his desk, scattering papers across the room," Silver said. "He jumped up and down, screaming obscenities at us for at least 10 minutes. He shook his fists as if he was going to slug us."
After Silver pointed out that his behavior was inappropriate, "He apologized and was contrite," Silver said.
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McCain's office did not respond to my requests for comment about his anger.
However, when I appeared on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show "The Situation" to discuss NewsMax's disclosures about McCain's anger on July 6, Carlson said on the air, "We got a call earlier tonight from McCain's Senate office suggesting that we not do this story. [They were] annoyed about it."
Intimidation Tactics
That hint at intimidation is one reason why major media outlets may think twice about revealing what they know about McCain's temper, which is widely whispered about in Washington. With the exception of NewsMax, no media outlet has been willing to suffer the possibility of lack of access to a candidate who could wind up in the White House by reporting the full story of McCain's dark side.
In the past, McCain has alternately denied being prone to angry outbursts or admitted he struggles to control his anger or has claimed he only becomes angry over waste and abuse. But those who have experienced his anger say it does not erupt over policy issues or waste and abuse. Rather, his outbursts manifest themselves when peers disagree with McCain or tell him they won't support him.
In his 2002 book, "Worth the Fighting For: A Memoir," McCain said, "I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public's."
But the Baltimore Sun quoted McCain on March 20 as denying he had a temper.
"Just because someone says it's there, you would have to provide some corroboration that it was," McCain said. "Because I do not lose my temper. I do not . . . for someone to say that McCain became just angry and yelled or raised my voice or — it's just not true," McCain said.
Just two days earlier, however, McCain said at a forum in Scottsdale, Ariz., "I have had a bad temper in my life." Saying he displayed his temper in his early days in office, McCain said, "Every time I ever lost my temper, I regretted it since then."
If McCain has trouble keeping his story straight, it has not detracted from his glowing press coverage. The media routinely portray McCain as an amiable war hero, a man of moderation and compassion.
In part because McCain gives reporters access and charms them with his apparent openness, and in part because they relish his periodic criticisms of President Bush's policies and of the FBI and CIA, the media have largely ignored McCain's anger issues and a string of inappropriate, offensive comments he has made.
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So far, no one has claimed that McCain's temper has manifested itself openly in front of a reporter such as Purdum writing a story about him. Nor does McCain's temper compare with Clinton's or Giuliani's. McCain displays what colleagues describe as vicious, irrational behavior when they disagree with him. Clinton and Giuliani get mad at subordinates in a more controlled way when they think they have not done their jobs.