McCain Drops F-Bomb

May 19, 2007 7:59 a.m. EST

Christopher Rizo - AHN Staff Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - In a profanity-laced tirade, U.S. Sen. John McCain exploded at a fellow senator over a proposed immigration overhaul.

In a heated exchange, McCain screamed, "F- - - you!" at Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who had been raising concerns about the legislation, the New York Post reports.
"This is chickens- - - stuff," McCain told Cornyn, according to several people in the room off the Senate floor Thursday. "You've always been against this bill, and you're just trying to derail it."

Apparently, the conversation escalated after Cornyn accused McCain of being too occupied with running for president to be a part of negotiations that a small group of senators has been engaged in for months to hammer out a bipartisan compromise.
"Wait a second here," Cornyn said to McCain, according to the Washington Post. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."

Among other things, the proposal would put an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship, create guest worker program, punish companies that hire undocumented workers, and would increase border patrols.

Brian Jones, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, acknowledged that a "spirited exchange" did occur, though he took exception to a few details, The Post reports.
Jones said that the "chickens- - -" phrase was offered by a McCain ally in the room.
"Negotiating such a large and important piece of legislation can be intense, and a spirited exchange did occur," Jones said. "[McCain] is somebody who feels very passionate about his work and about solving the problems facing the country."