Does John McCain get mad? Ask Pete Domenici

 Just how volatile is John McCain's temper? Ask New Mexico's senior U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.,  who has experienced it first hand, according to this account published in The Washington Post over the weekend:

While in the course of a policy disagreement at a luncheon meeting of Republican senators, McCain reportedly insulted Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico with an earthy expletive. Domenici demanded an apology. "Okay, I'll apologize," McCain said, before referring to an infuriated Domenici with the same expletive.

Michael Leahy's profile of McCain's temperament isn't the first to recall the 1999 run-in with Domenici. A 2000 Newsweek article offered a more detailed account of the meeting:

A Republican senator tells this story: at a GOP meeting last fall, McCain erupted out of the blue at the respected Budget Committee chairman, Pete Domenici, saying, "Only an a--hole would put together a budget like this." Offended, Domenici stood up and gave a dignified, restrained speech about how in all his years in the Senate, through many heated debates, no one had ever called him that. Another senator might have taken the moment to check his temper. But McCain went on: "I wouldn't call you an a--hole unless you really were an a--hole.

Both pieces report a number similar confrontations - including some that resulted in shouting and shoving - with other congressional colleagues. In the Post article, some McCain supporters acknowledge the Republican presidential hopeful's temper but "praise a firebrand who is resolute against the forces of greed and gutlessness." Others say he would "place this country at risk." A Domenici spokesperson couldn't immediately be reached Monday morning for comment on the Post account. But Domenici denied to Newsweek that McCain used the word "a--hole" in the argument, and the New Mexico senator earlier this year endorsed McCain's current bid for the White House, saying:

My many years working with John McCain persuade me that he is the best candidate on the issues upon which I have spent most of my career -- deficit reduction, federal spending reform, a strong military, and the increased use of nuclear power for electricity generation in this time of global climate change.

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