Senator Bad Ass McCain

…while on a diplomatic mission led by Sen. Bob Dole and others in the fall of 1987. Cochran, McCain — who’d been elected to the Senate the year before — and other members of a bipartisan committee of lawmakers called the Central American Negotiations Observer Group met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the head of the left-wing Sandinista political party, Cochran said.The atmosphere was tense, as the United States was pressing “pretty hard.” Cochran said he noticed a disturbance at the meeting table in a room lined with armed personnel.

“McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table, and I don’t know what attracted my attention,” Cochran said. “But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever. I don’t know what he was telling him but I thought, good grief everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission. I don’t know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him.”

No punches were thrown, and the two sat back down, he said. The man, who appeared to be ruffled after the confrontation, was an associate of Ortega’s, but Cochran said he was unsure of his identity.

Emphasis mine. I’m liking this guy. Full story here.