McCain Ape Rape Joke Recalled By Sources

[Amerigo Vespucci]

McCain Ape Rape Joke Recalled By Sources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/15/sources-recall-mccains-jo_n_112955.html



News circulated fast late Tuesday afternoon that back in 1986, during his initial run for the Senate, John McCain allegedly told a crude joke about rape involving a woman's affection for an ape.

The story, which was reprised on the blog Rum, Romanism and Rebellion before being blasted out by Think Progress, goes like this: In an appearance before the National League of Cities and Towns in Washington D.C., McCain supposedly asked the crowd if they had heard "the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?"

The punch line: "When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, "Where is that marvelous ape?"

Eeeshh. The joke, as one can imagine, did not go over well with various women's groups, which responded with indignation. But the McCain campaign denied that he had ever said the offensive gag.

"It's pretty obvious to us that this is a politically motivated sideshow," Torrie Clarke, McCain's spokeswoman at the time, said back in 1986. Till this day it has never been proven definitively true or false whether the Senator ever said the line.

The Huffington Post reached out to the original reporter in that story, Norma Coile (who wrote about the response to the rape joke in the Tuscon Citizen) to find out if she thought it was true.

"I'm not sure exactly what the wording was of the joke, but something was said. Some joke involving a rape and ape was said. Enough women repeated it to me at the time and the McCain campaign had a non-denial denial," said Coile, now with the Arizona Daily Star. "It came after his 'Seizure World' joke, in which he referred to the (retirement community) Leisure World as Seizure World... I just think it reinforced this idea that John McCain is humor-challenged. Whatever his qualities, he seems to have a tin ear for how these jokes will go over."

[MannyGoldstein]

1. "Why Is Chelsea Clinton So Ugly?

Because her father is Janet Reno"

That's one that McCain definitely told, at a fundraiser.

[dflprincess]

2. Interesting -

especially when one remembers that the Minnesota Repukes recently tried to make an issue about a rape joke Al Franken made in 1995.

[bluestateguy]

3. We have got to get this into the mainstream media

And that starts by getting this to the bloggers first. Has Kos (or one of his people) blogged on it?

[Catherine Vincent]

4. He probably did say it.

Prick.