GOP Catfight Gets Personal -- John McCain Defends Daughter

March 17, 2009— -- A woman's weight is a touchy subject. But when women engage in a war of words it can be an effective way to hit someone where it hurts.

That may be why Meghan McCain, the daughter of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, is lashing out at conservative radio commentator Laura Ingraham who got personal in the middle of an ongoing GOP catfight by calling Meghan McCain "plus-sized."

"Everyone from Tyra Banks to Oprah [Winfrey] to Hillary Clinton to my mother -- why are we so obsessed with weight?" Meghan McCain said Monday on ABC's "The View." "That's what I feel like right now, I'm like 'Kiss my fat a--.'"

Even her father got in on the act today during a "Twitterview" with ABC News' chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos.

"I'm proud of my daughter and she has a right to her opinions," John McCain said.

As for his daughter's politics, he said, "Like any family we agree on some things and disagree on others."

The latest waistline headline came after Ingraham mocked the 24-year-old on the airwaves.

It started when Meghan McCain criticized Ingraham's fellow conservative Ann Coulter in her online column. Meghan McCain said she was "offensive, radical, insulting and confusing."

Ingraham struck back on Coulters' behalf -- in a fierce way.

"I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in 'The Real World,' but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models," she said, mocking a recent Meghan McCain on-air comment in a lilting voice. "They only like the women who look a certain way."

Ingraham also questioned whether anyone would even be talking to her if "you weren't kind of cute and you weren't the daughter of John McCain."

Meghan McCain said she's a size 8, but hit a size 10 during her father's presidential campaign -- that's when someone handed her a plastic surgeon's business card and suggested she get liposuction.

She may not be waiflike, but she doesn't fit the nation's definition of "plus-sized." The average American woman is between a size 12 and a size 14.

"What do young women think when I speak my mind about politics and I want to have a political discussion about the ideological future of the Republican Party and the answer is she's fat and shouldn't have an opinion," Meghan McCain said on "The View." "What kind of message are we sending women?"