John McCain Declares "I Hate The Gooks", And The Media Doesn't Care

Holy hell! This one slipped by me 8 years ago, but now that I'm freshly aware of it, I think it bears mentioning. Back in 2000, aboard the "Straight Talk Express", John McCain said the following:

"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."

I. Shit. You. Not.

How can it be that there is a man running for president who has used, and refused to apologize for, a horribly racist slur against Asians, and it isn't even brought up? I follow politics closely, and this is the first time I've heard this. Seriously, in an election where Obama would have been harassed by the media nonstop for weeks if someone he once knew or met had said something racist like that, John McCain gets away with saying that, and refusing to apologize for it, and it gets swept under the rug?? I know the media is inept, and has a serious double standard when it comes to attacking Obama, but this is beyond the pale.

Here's a little background on the racist slur "gook":

The word "gook" was first used in 1899 by American soldiers fighting Filipino insurgents. During the Korean War, the term was aimed at Koreans and Chinese. It was directed at the Vietnamese when Americans were fighting in Vietnam. It is now used as a slur toward any Asian or Pacific Islander.

There are over 13 million Asian Americans living in the United States, who would most likely take offense to McCain's unabashed use of a racial term that has been used against their ethnic group for over a century. Frankly, I can't imagine how it would feel to have a president who has racially disparaged the ethnic group to which I belong, not to mention pledging to "hate them as long as I live". Is that what America is about? How the hell are Asian Americans supposed to feel patriotic and good about America when an unrepentant racist is leading the country?? I don't give a shit if he was tortured by the North Vietnamese, that doesn't excuse racism, that doesn't excuse using that bigoted term, that doesn't excuse refusing to apologize for the use of that term, even after offending so many Americans. And how the hell are we to deal diplomatically with foreign countries like China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, all of the Southeast Asian countries, and yes, Vietnam, the people of which McCain has vowed to hate for the rest of his life. Is that who we want in the White House, controlling this country, especially as China becomes an increasingly important actor on the international scene?

I don't know what else to say...I'm just appalled, I'm shocked, not so much that McCain is racist, or would say such a thing, but that he can say it, and refuse to apologize for it, and the media gives him a 100% free pass, whereas you know damn well that if it had been Obama, or even someone he associated with at some point, it would create a media shitstorm. The Republicans have gotten away with being racist for far too long, and it is a national embarrassment, and it needs to end, it needs to stop being alright, and it needs to be made an issue.

Add to this his blatant sexism in calling his wife a cunt (yes, his upgrade wife he cheated on his first wife with after she was injured in a car accident and wasn't hot enough for him anymore), and you really start to get a picture of who the Republicans have picked as their best specimen.

Update: And another thing, given that his torture (even though he has admitted they took it easy on him since he was an admiral's son) apparently caused him to irrationally hate an entire race forever, maybe that should make him reconsider his support of Bush's policy of torture and illegal, indefinite detention without habeas corpus. Do Republicans really think these people, many of them innocent, just go home and resume their normal lives after being locked up and tortured and abused for years? No, they end up hating Americans for the rest of their lives, and are probably much more willing to strap on an explosive belt to prove it, especially if they lost everything that was ever dear to them. Maybe McCain should think about that, next time he wants to sanction torture. And let me be clear, a few individual North Vietnamese torturing him doesn't make it OK for him to hate an entire ethnic group, or use racial slurs against them, and especially not to refuse to apologize to those he offended. That is inexcusable for any average person on the street, but it is outrageous for a sitting senator and presidential candidate. That kind of racism is despicable.