In Arizona, the tales of John McCain’s angry rage and belligerent, threatening behavior in relation to the Mt. Graham Observatory project are legendary.
Today, new evidence in the form of a document, made at the time of the events, has been produced confirming the charges and demonstrating McCain’s patent dishonesty in repeatedly denying his misconduct. From Alan Maimon at the Review-Journal:
Frustrated that a massive telescope project he backed had hit a snag in 1989, Sen. John McCain lashed out at a U.S. Forest Service supervisor, threatening his job if he failed to help get approval for the project.
McCain over the years denied making the menacing comment, but newly surfaced government documents indicate that his anger boiled over to the point where he did.
The incident with the forest official wasn’t the first or last time McCain became irate at someone he felt stood in his way.
From environmental activists to former high-ranking Republican officials in his home state, a diverse group of Arizonans have vivid memories of heated skirmishes with the Republican presidential candidate.
The flare-ups started in the late 1980s, around the time that McCain and the others in the Keating Five orruption were under investigation for improper relationships and influence peddling with Charlie Keating in the Savings and Loan Bailout Scandal that led to Keating’s criminal prosecution and conviction. McCain was under immense pressure on many fronts resulting from his conduct in those days. As remains the case today, when John Sidney McCain III is under pressure, he lashes out furiously at anyone in his path. It is his way.
In an interview with the Review-Journal, former GAO manager Joe Gibbons said McCain proceeded to interfere with the agency’s work, "going bananas" and "steamrolling the GAO" to get his way.
McCain had already shown a willingness to throw his weight around, according to some involved in the Mount Graham project.
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But Gibbons and other GAO investigators charged with examining the scientific fights over the project also reached conclusions about related personal clashes.An internal GAO memo from 1990 obtained by the Review-Journal refers to McCain’s "admitted threat" to the forest supervisor. The memo was designed to remain between the GAO and McCain’s office. Its contents have never been made public before.
"I wouldn’t have written that without something material in my hands," former assistant GAO director Bob Robinson said when asked about the document he authored.
Angry brutish bullying, dishonesty, duplicity and a ready willingness to do and say anything that will serve his boundless ambition, or gratify him at the moment, are the hallmark of John Sidney McCain III’s life. It is who he is. It is what he does. A disturbing character set for a man that seeks to lead the United States in such troubled times.