back in 1996, according to Elliot D. Cohen in a guest column at Buzzflash. And even though there were several eyewitnesses and numerous complaints to the Senate Ethics Committee, it was never investigated.
Fitting considering a conversation I just had the other day with a life-long Republican (he even served in the Ford administration). He said he was embarrassed for his party this year. Why? Because he's worked with McCain on several occassions and told me that everything you've heard about his temper is accurate. He told me that McCain should never set foot in the oval office.
Here's an excerpt from Elliot Cohen's article:
Mrs. Hrdlicka gives the following description of what happened:
When he [McCain] realized who we were, his face turned red and he became enraged. He would not accept the letters we had brought, he burst through our group assaulting the niece of Jane Duke Gaylor, mother of a MIA. I followed Senator McCain down the hall asking that he leave the legislation alone and all the while he is denying that he knew anything about the Missing Personnel Act. ...As we reached the elevator he said to me that I didn't know what he had been through ... I then stated I understood what he had been through and David Hrdlicka was still going through it. I had the capture picture of my husband and tried to show the picture to him but he would not look at it. ...The elevator arrived and Senator McCain quickly jumped in -- that ended our conversation. After this incident we went to the Capitol Police and filed a report. We also sent complaints to the ethics committee on the Senator's behavior.
"He went from a smiling, congenial, happy face to a beet red, totally enraged face in an instant," she said. "I have never seen a senator act in this way. We were all dumbfounded how this happened. He threw his arm up, and she goes flying and Jane [who was in a wheelchair] gets pushed aside as he brushes by her. All I see is people flying and I'm behind him [McCain]... This was assault."
As for a smoking gun for these alleged outbursts? According to Grover Norquist, there's plenty:
A Harvard student who took part in an "off-the-record" study group last year taught by New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney emails about guest speaker Grover Norquist:
"Norquist said that Sen. John McCain has had a long habit of blowing up in senator's faces on the Senate Floor and in the Republican cloakroom. Apparently, McCain's proclivity to yell very angrily and very rudely at fellow senators, along with his tendency to be aggravated in general, led McCain to send hundreds of apologetic notes to fellow Republican senators. Often, these notes would arrive at the offices of the offended senators even before they were able to return to their offices. According to Norquist, many Republican senators have collected thick stacks of McCain's apology notes. Norquist suggested that these would hinder the long-term viability of a strong McCain presidential campaign."
h/t Political Wire
UPDATE: Here's who served on the Senate Ethics Committee in the 104th Congress:
Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chairman
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Robert C. Smith (R-NH)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Larry Craig (R-ID)
Patty Murray (D-WA)