http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0323montini0323.html

Nothing here for McCain to become angry over . . . I hope

Mar. 23, 2006 12:00 AM

Sen. John McCain declared recently that he does not lose his temper, and without proof to the contrary I would not dare dispute him. Particularly since I tried that once and received a very . . . animated telephone call from the senator, followed by 12 years of the silent treatment.

In a Baltimore Sun article Sunday about McCain, the unannounced presidential candidate was asked about his reputation as a guy who can fly off the handle.

Not that I would know anything about that based on a long-ago phone call I got from the senator. One that began with him saying, rather loudly, "You have, Mr. Montini, lied about me, and what I said, and I demand a retraction and apology from you, and I demand it immediately." And which ended with what I believed to be a slightly veiled threat to get me fired.

Or maybe I misinterpreted the whole thing. That must be it, since this is what the senator told the Sun reporter about his temper: "Just because someone says it's there, you would have to provide some corroboration that it was. Because I do not lose my temper. I do not. Now, do I speak strongly? Do I feel frustrated from time to time? Of course. If I didn't, I don't think I would be doing my job.

"But for someone to say that McCain became just angry and yelled or even raised my voice or - it's just not true. It's simply not true. And so these rumors continue to circulate about - quote - temper. They're going to have to find some concrete examples of it, and they aren't there."

People change. McCain has changed. He's not the angry young man some claim he used to be. Or even the angry middle-aged man. That's why he could become president.

But he wasn't always quite so soft around the edges.

In 1999, his former press secretary, Torie Clarke, said of McCain, "It's amazing the number of people who say, 'He's just so straightforward, he's so dead honest, he's so refreshing.' And, you know, his temper is a part of that."

And in describing some conversations with McCain, former Arizona Gov. Jane Hull pretended to hold a telephone away from her ear and told a reporter, "You've got to hold it out there for a while, and let him calm down."

In 1991, I wrote a column about the testimony of Anita Hill during the Senate hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hill was called to testify about claims of sexual harassment against Thomas. Even before she appeared, however, McCain and then-Sen. Dennis DeConcini, Arizona's other senator at the time, said they supported Thomas. I wrote that since only one of the two parties, Hill or Thomas, could be telling the truth, that McCain and DeConcini were labeling Hill a liar without the benefit of first hearing her testimony.

DeConcini took the comments in stride.

McCain telephoned to tell me, "YOU are the liar," and promised "to pursue this as far as I can since I have the weight of evidence and a clear case on my side that you have assassinated my character."

McCain did not speak to me or correspond with me in any way for the next 12 years.

I'm pleased to know that it wasn't because he was angry, however. And to know, as well, that nothing written here would cause the senator to lose his temper.

Or, should he become president, and have the entire military, intelligence, judicial and tax-collecting bureaucracies at his disposal, to hold a grudge against some pipsqueak writer in Phoenix.

Reach Montini at (602) 444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com. Read his blog at montiniblog.azcentral.com.