McCain and Racial Slur and APOLOGY

I saw an old story from the 2000 campaign (still one of the top reads) in the SFGate.com paper (the SF Chronicle) and it included a story about McCain's then-habit of using the slur "gooks" to refer to his tormentors in Vietnam. He made it clear he was only talking about his torturers and refused to stop using the term. You too may see this story re-working its way through the web.

I didn't remember seeing this story before (though I do now), so I had my producer Fred call the McCain campaign to find out if he had changed his position. Frankly, I just couldn't believe the senator would be so self-destructive. Though Fred asked specifically about the word, no denial or apology was referenced. Instead we received a press release on Asian-American endorsements, etc. ( I post the email text below). Fred tells me that he asked a few times about THE WORD, but never got an answer. JUST before the end of the show, Fred found the story where McCain DID apologize for the use of the slur. I only wish the Senator's press office had known about it. If they had told us, I would never have brought it up.

Anyway, below is the email exchange --my comments to the McCain camp, and their initial response to our question, does the senator still believe this word is acceptable:

Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 6:16 PM To Cc: Attachments:

Crystal-- I have spent a lot of time on the air trying to convince conservatives that if McCain wins the nomination, he is worthy of their support. When I saw this story from the SF Chronicle about the use of the word "Gook", I asked my producer Fred to call you to confirm because I just couldn't believe he hadn't changed that practice since the 2000 campaign and I was worried it would destroy him in November. Embarassingly, I pleaded on the air for him to stop after getting this information from the McCain campaign and Fred's conversation with you wherein no one mentioned that soon after the old story came out, McCain did indeed retract and change his mind. We barely found the retraction on time for me to mention it during my show, and I feel I will need to mention it tomorrow as well to set the story straight, but the whole point of my contacting the McCain campaign first was to find out the validity of the report. Please make sure that your fellow officials in the McCain press office know that the story is making the rounds again but WITHOUT his 2000 retraction so they are prepared. I hate misinforming my listeners and don't want misconstrue the position of Senator McCain. Thank you. Sincerely, David Boze, Host 770 KTTH Seattle PS. I am not blaming you either, so I don't mean to sound cross, I just want to make sure that McCain is not slandered and that I am not a part to spreading a half-truth. Thanks again. From: Crystal Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:32 PM To: Frederick Rains Cc: David Boze Subject: McCain/Vietnam Fred, Please see the recent press release announcing the support of three leaders in the Vietnamese-American community in California. Also, please see the AP clip on the senator’s work to normalize relations with Vietnam (from Oct 2001), and two clips on the volunteer work Mrs. Cindy McCain has done in the country. Thank you for calling. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks, Crystal VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN LEADERS ENDORSE JOHN MCCAIN FOR PRESIDENT For Immediate Release Contact: Press Office Thursday, January 31, 2008 703-xxx-xxxx ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that four influential leaders from California’s Vietnamese-American community have endorsed John McCain for president. California Assemblyman Van Tran, Westminister City Council Member Tri Ta, Garden Grove City Council Member Dina Nguyen, and Midway City Sanitary District Member Truong Diep will all serve on the Advisory Committee of Asian-Americans for John McCain. “I am very proud to support John McCain, a man who has done so much for America and for Asian-Americans across our nation,” said Assemblyman Tran. “He clearly is the best candidate to represent all Americans in the White House.” John McCain thanked the group, stating, “I am proud to have the support of these distinguished members of the Vietnamese-American community. We have worked together in the past, and I look forward to their support as we work toward victory in California on Super Tuesday.” Assemblyman Van Tran is the highest ranking Vietnamese-American elected official in the nation. Assemblyman Tran was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2004 and serves as an Assistant Republican Leader in the Assembly. He represents the 68th Assembly District in Orange County, including the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Newport Beach, Stanton, and Westminster. Assemblyman Tran’s family first came to America in 1975, evacuated by the U.S. Army a week before the fall of Saigon. Councilmember Tri Ta was elected to the Westminster City Council in November, 2006. Prior to his election, he served on the city’s Energy Committee and the Advisory Committee for the Disabled. Councilmember Ta was born in Saigon, Vietnam. He came to the United States with his family in 1992 at the age of nineteen. Council Member Dina Nguyen was elected to the Garden Grove City Council in November, 2006. Prior to her election, she served as a commissioner on the Garden Grove Neighborhood Improvement and Conservation Commission. Councilmember Nguyen has lived in Orange County since arriving in California in 1977. Sanitary District Member Truong Diep was elected to the Midway City Sanitary District in November, 2006 and is the youngest elected official in Orange County. District Member Diep and his family resettled in Southern California from Vietnam in 1991. ### Please visit this page if you want to remove yourself from the email list. Normalizing Trade Relations With Vietnam By Associated Press Congress completed work on an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam, and President Bush is expected to sign the measure. The Senate’s 88-12 vote on Oct. 3 “represents an important step in the healing process” between the two former enemies, said the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., “a step that has been a long time in coming.” The House endorsed the measure last month, and Bush said he would sign it. The trade agreement, negotiated by the Clinton administration last year, “will provide American companies with access to a large and growing market, and, through the reforms it promotes, will help create a more prosperous and engaged Vietnam,” Bush said in a statement after the Senate vote. Vietnam would benefit from the same low tariffs the United States sets for its other trading partners. In return, Vietnam is to reduce its tariffs, eliminate non-tariff barriers, protect intellectual property rights and open its markets to American service and investment companies. The United States and Vietnam had no formal relations and limited contacts in the two decades after U.S. troops left Vietnam in 1973. In 1994, President Clinton lifted the trade embargo and the next year he established diplomatic relations. In 1998, he issued the first waiver making commercial deals with Vietnam eligible for U.S. government loans and credit guarantees. But Vietnam has remained one of only six nations denied normal trade relations, subjecting Vietnamese goods to far higher tariffs. The other countries are Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Laos and former Yugoslavia. Vietnam is the world’s 14th-most-populous nation, with 80 million people, but trade with the United States was only about $1.2 billion last year. Estimates are that Vietnam’s exports to the United States, mainly shrimp, coffee and light manufactured goods, could more than double with normal trade relations. Opposition to the deal came mainly from lawmakers who asserted that Vietnam has not fully cooperated in accounting for MIAs from the Vietnam War and should not be entitled to normal trade because of its poor human rights record. “If those who want to normalize relations with Vietnam choose to ignore the numerous human rights violations of that country, is that right?” asked Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H. Concerns were also raised by Mississippi Delta senators, who said the agreement lacked protections for the catfish industry. Vietnamese imports, said Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., are “absolutely destroying our domestic catfish industry.” Leading the effort to normalize ties with Vietnam were three senators who served in the Vietnam War: Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and John McCain, R-Ariz., a former prisoner of war. Because Vietnam is a communist state, its normal trade status will still be subject to annual review, requiring the president to waive the requirement that Vietnam allow free emigration. Vietnam’s prime minister initiated the ratification process in Vietnam by sending the trade agreement to President Tran Duc Long. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/11/earlyshow/main2911991.shtml (CBS) Mrs. John McCain is doing more than just hitting the campaign trail these days. On The Early Show Monday, Cindy McCain, wife of the Arizona senator and Republican presidential hopeful, discussed her recent work in Vietnam with Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization. Operation Smile does surgeries to repair cleft palates. Doctors working for the agency repair all kinds of facial deformities around the world for $250, she said. (Click here for more information on Operation Smile.) McCain, a board member of Operation Smile, has a daughter with a cleft palate. "That's what brought me to them," she said of her involvement with the organization. She said the difference the surgery can make in the lives of the children is remarkable. "These kids would be in a closet some place, or kept in a back room," she said. "It's miraculous." In addition to her 15-year-old daughter, who was adopted from Bangladesh, the McCains have two sons and a 23-year-old daughter. Both boys are involved with the military: One attends the U.S. Naval Academy and another is in the Marines, preparing for possible deployment to Iraq in the fall. McCain emphasized that she is proud of her sons and that her views on the war remain unchanged regardless of her son's potential deployment. The only change, she said, is that she "will join the ranks of mothers who have a child serving overseas, and will be worrying and praying with them." All of her children support their father's presidential campaign, McCain said. "We sat down as a family around Christmas and talked about it," she said. They were all very supportive, she added, but were concerned about global warming and questioned their father and his stance on the issue. McCain brushed off any concerns her husband might have about trailing Rudy Giuliani in the polls and said that while his stance on the Iraq war might be hurting his campaign, he won't take a position because of polling numbers. "His positions are his positions," she said. "He takes them because he believes in them. He's a leader. He does what he believes is right, not what's in the polling numbers." http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/media/San-Diego-Magazine/August-2007/Cindy-McCain/ THE WIFE OF REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE John McCain, Cindy Hensley McCain is a native of Arizona and a longtime visitor to San Diego who owns a home on Coronado. She’s the chairman of her family’s business, Hensley & Company, one of the largest Anheuser-Bush distributors in the United States. She’s also a tireless volunteer, advocating for children’s healthcare needs around the globe through HALO, Operation Smile and CARE, USA. Her formal education includes an undergraduate degree in education and a master’s in special education from the University of Southern California. She’s the mother of four children, including an adopted daughter, and three stepchildren from John McCain’s first marriage. TOM BLAIR: So, you’re one of those folks we San Diegans refer to fondly as Zonies. CINDY MCCAIN: Well, we take it well. TB: Probably few San Diegans know about your ties to our city, especially to Coronado, where you spend a lot of leisure time. CM: Oh, yes, anytime I get a chance to. TB: You have a home here. CM: We have a place at Coronado Shores, right next to the Hotel del Coronado. TB: When did you first start coming to Coronado? CM: As a child. I think every good Arizonan heads out there when possible. My parents took me to the beach, where we had summer rentals. And I’ve spent a whole lot of time there. And then, three years ago, I had a stroke. That summer, I rented a place and stayed four months to recuperate. And I thought, Yeah, I like this okay, I’m going to buy something. And I did. TB: And your recovery from the stroke was complete. CM: Complete, yes. And our kids love the place in Coronado. All of a sudden, I’ve become very popular. But it’s great, because I see more of them now. TB: It’s got to be a nice respite from the grueling presidential campaign trail. In John McCain’s case, the trail seems to have been years long. How many days out of each month do you see your husband now? CM: Not many. Two or three, maybe. TB: And how much campaigning do you do on the road? CM: A fair amount. But I still have a daughter at home, and my other kids are all doing things there, too. I have to be responsible and able to handle the family issues. So I’m out campaigning, but I come home to Arizona to regroup, then head back out. TB: The job description for first lady isn’t particularly well-defined. CM: I don’t think I’ve seen any definition anywhere. TB: Well, not many Americans would mistake Hillary Clinton’s style for Laura Bush’s style. How do you perceive yourself as first lady——more Hillary or more Laura? CM: I think I perceive myself as just Cindy McCain. If I were so lucky to find myself in that position . . . as you know, I’m very involved in a lot of nonprofits, I volunteer overseas and do work there, and I would continue that. I’d also continue to get others involved, not only worldwide but on a local level. TB: But not much politics. CM: No. No, no, no. I’ve never been a political person. I would not attend cabinet meetings; I would not be a part of that process. That’s my husband’s job. But what I do is just as important. It’s just different. What I look for—and I’m a voter—is whether the candidate was true to his beliefs and honest.Telling me not what I want to hear but what the truth is.” TB: Most husbands and wives are politically compatible. But many also differ on some issues. Is there any issue you and your husband disagree on——even by degree? CM: There are some issues, sure. My differences with John may have been more stylistic than anything else. But we’re fairly compatible on all the issues. I’m certainly not lockstep with him, but I don’t have any complaints at all. I like where he stands. He’s sought my advice on certain things——education, for one. And he always runs things by me. Whether he takes my advice or not, I’m not sure. Frankly, when he comes home, where he stands on the issues isn’t the first thing I want to talk about. We need to talk about the kids. TB: Well, then, let’s talk about a domestic issue: What’s John McCain’s most annoying habit? CM: He’s a remote-control freak. Once he gets hold of the remote control, forget it. If you want to watch something else, you’re out of luck. You’ve got to go someplace else. TB: In other words, he’s a husband. What would John McCain say is your most annoying habit? CM: I guess bringing home stray everything. Dogs . . . I love animals, so I’ll wind up bringing strays home. I think that probably bothers him more than he says. TB: One of your husband’s Republican opponents for the nomination has been married three times. That’s an issue for some Americans. Your marriage to John McCain was the second time around, for him. Do you think that’s a problem, especially among the so-called “family values” wing of the GOP? CM: I don’t think it’s an issue the way it once would have been. But quite honestly, I don’t know, because every part of the country is different. When you’re in the South, you hear one thing; when you’re in the North, you hear something else. I think it’s just a matter of who these guys are and what kind of a leader they’d be. What I look for——and I’m a voter——is whether the candidate was true to his beliefs and honest. Telling me not what I want to hear but what the truth is. TB: You and your husband have three children together, and then one daughter, Bridget, you adopted after finding her during a mercy mission to Bangladesh. CM: And three grandchildren. TB: And then three children by John’s first marriage. Are any of them still at home? CM: Bridget is 15 now; she’s still at home. Our 23-year-old, who just graduated from Columbia, has just moved back home. She’s not in the house; she’s in an apartment. And she’s going to be campaigning with her dad. And then our two boys are in the military. TB: And is Bridget doing well? CM: Bridget is doing great. She’s a typical teenager. She’s a good kid. TB: That sort of sets up the next question. Finding Bridget was the result of your world travels promoting healthcare for children of the world. What specific causes would you champion as a first lady? CM: I just returned, in fact, from an Operation Smile trip to Vietnam for cleft-palate surgery for children. What I would continue to champion, in addition to my personal causes, is getting people up off the sofa, getting them involved in their neighborhoods, their communities, their states or worldwide. Shut the game down on Saturday afternoon, get off the sofa, and let’s go do something positive. Give a couple hours a week, instead of sitting and beefing about it. TB: You certainly live that. You’ve traveled the world doing something positive. CM: What I do when an organization asks me to join a board, or get involved, I go and watch them in the field. The most important thing I want to see is not only if the money is there but how it’s used. Are they frugal? Is it going where it’s supposed to go, and not for parties to talk about the charity? TB: Well, you’re a good business person. You’re chairman of the family business——which is dear to my heart——a distributor of Anheuser-Busch. How much time can you devote to business when you’re being a political wife, and mother, and traveling the world doing good works? CM: You know, we live in a wonderful age of e-mail, and Internet and cell phones that work everywhere in the world, so I can devote as much time to business as I need to, no matter where I am in the world. And I do. Of course, I have a great group of people under me, so I have a company that runs well, but I can also do the things I want to do. TB: By virtue of his position as a U.S. senator and presidential candidate, your husband has to deal almost daily with criticism. Sometimes it gets nasty. When that happens, how do you react? Do you have to fight the urge to strike back? CM: I absolutely have to. I take it very personally when people do that. I’m in a terrible situation in that respect——any member of a political family is——because we sit and hear everything that goes on, and we can’t say anything. Sure there are days I want to fight back and say, “You’re not only wrong; you’re dead wrong.” But I can’t. It’s not appropriate, and I wouldn’t do that. And just about every other politician’s spouse does the same thing. TB: Well, you may only have another year and a half of that. When the election’s over, do you think you might consider a Western White House in Coronado? CM: Absolutely. I love Coronado. Listen, to me there’s nothing better than waking up and seeing the sun come up over the water on the bay there. And watching the Navy SEALs run up and down the beach. And walking along the beach and then watching the sun set over Point Loma. That’s a great way to live.