(Video) Murtha calls on McCain to apologize for IED joke

Congressman John Murtha is furious at John McCain for a joke that he made about IED's while appearing on the Daily Show this week.  Here was what McCain said:

STEWART: So what do you want to start with: the bomb Iran song, or the walk through the market in Baghdad?  What do you want to start with?

MCCAIN: Uh, let's see.  Which one have I seen most on your show?  I think maybe, maybe shopping in Baghdad.  I had something really picked out for you too.  It's a nice --

STEWART: Did you really?

MCCAIN: Yeah.  It's a nice little IED to put under your desk.

On the House floor the very next day, Murtha said many of the military families that lost loved ones to IED's would find that offensive.  He called on McCain to apologize:

MURTHA: Let me talk a little about IED's.  In the last four months, we've lost more troops than any other period during this war.  And I'm sorry to hear from a friend of mine's wife, who called me and said there was a joke on one of the shows last night of a Republican presidential candidate who said that he brought an IED back and put it under this guy's desk.  That individual owes an apology to every troop that serves in Iraq.

McCain's campaign is a train-wreck.  It will be very important for him to rebound during the GOP debate on Thursday.

All I know is that if McCain were a Democrat, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh would have gone crazy because of that comment.

Comments

[Tony]

Hannity would beat the shit out of this if it were from a dem. Since it was from "Baghdad Market McCain" he will dismiss it as a joke, and the fact it was on The daily Show and talk about how "far" Stewart goes with jokes.

[VooDooAddict]

Bah, it was a bad joke ... deal with it.

Politicians are not comedians ... they are politicians. Rip on them for policy (and serious policy statements that turned out to be funny) not for jokes gone bad.

[Granny]

It WAS a bad joke, VooDoo, and we ARE dealing with it. We're pointing out that anyone dumb enough, and callous enough, and witless, thoughtless and oblivious enough, to think that was material appropriately used to provoke laughter, is surely ill equipped to be considered presidential.