WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator John McCain, trying to dig himself out of hole with women's groups, denied that he hurled the word "c*nt" at his wife during a 1992 campaign stop, as alleged by Cliff Sheter in his new tell-all The Real McCain."That incident has been totally misconstrued," said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. McCain admitted he uttered the word but claimed he was rehearsing for a role in The Vagina Monologues where the word figures prominently. "I was the first male in the history of the United States Congress to be a serious contender for one of the leads in that play," explained McCain. "The character I was hoping to play gets to repeatedly scream the 'c' word at the top of her -- or in my case, his -- lungs. I assume that the author of this book about me must have overheard me rehearsing the scene with my wife, so he twisted something totally empowering into something totally vulgar, something anti-woman. Well, I am as far from anti-woman as anyone could be."
McCain said he didn't get the part in the play. "I lost the role to a better human being -- better because she's a woman," said McCain. "But that experience allowed me to enter a communion with my oppressed and subjugated sisters. I felt that by repeatedly shouting the 'c' word, my sisters and I were able to reclaim that beautiful word from the patriarchy."
