For some reason my mailbox has been flooded this morning with this San Francisco Chronicle story from eight years ago (dated February 18, 2000) about Senator John McCain's use of the racial slur "gook": McCain Criticized for Slur. He was using it to describe the prison guards who tortured and held him captive during the Vietnam War: "I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." Yeah. That's racist!

McCain subsequently apologized, but that doesn't sound to me like the kind of thing you say you're sorry for and then you're just done with. Sure, he apologized for using the slur, but does that mean he just suddenly stopped hating "the gooks"? I mean, the man vowed hate them as long as he lived. Is this really the kind of man you want as President? I'm just saying.

But anyway, what I'm really wondering is what prompted this flash flood of emails pointing me to the article. Did SFGate.com link it from the top page? Did somebody link this article on a message board or something? It's currently the Most Read story on SFGate. Not that I don't think people should know about this. It just seems a little odd to dig up an 8-year-old story.

UPDATE: The story is currently linked at the Drudge Report and Digg.com. That explains everything. (Thanks Jian.)

UPDATE: More on the resurrection and crazy circulation of this 8-year-old article today: McCain shrugs off right-wing attacks