McLame: "And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago."

McCain Gambles with Awkward Joke
June 27, 2008 7:38 AM

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was asked by columnist Jon Ralston why he didn't choose Gov. Jim Gibbons to chair his Nevada campaign.

"I appreciate his support," McCain said. "As you know, the lieutenant governor is our chairman."

Why snub the governor? Ralston asked.

"I didn’t mean to snub him,. I've known the lieutenant governor for 15 years and we've been good friends," McCain said. "I didn't intend to snub him. There are other states where the governor is not the chairman."

Maybe it's the governor's approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president? Asked Ralston in a question McCain clearly found loaded.

Said McCain, chuckling, "And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago."

Some have found the subject of McCain's joke -- wife-beating -- inappropriate.

To be clear, McCain was alluding to the fictitious leading question "When did you stop beating your wife, senator?" It's a bit of distasteful DC yuckery so commonly quoted it's hackneyed.

But considering the subject McCain was discussing at the time, to allude to that joke was, well, .....awkward!

Gov. Gibbons last month filed for divorce from his wife Dawn citing incompatiblity.

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http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/mccain-gambles.html

you, me, all of DU.

molehill, not a mountain.

using state phone to text hundreds of texts a day to mistress...that's the irony of his remark! LOL