Letterman "Kneecaps" McCain over Liddy

McCain and Letterman

Thursday night on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman, the longtime late night talk show host kneecapped GOP Presidential Candidate John McCain over his relationship to Watergate planner G. Gordon Liddy.

"You will also admit that we cannot really control who we interact with in our lives, a hundred percent," said Letterman, referencing McCain's ubiquitous attack against Barack Obama that ties him to a 60's political radical. "I mean, you have ... You have ..."

McCain interrupted. "Depends on how long we interact with them and how we interact with them."

Letterman tried to cut in several times, but he was cut off by the candidate.

"The point is ... The point, the point of this whole campaign, the economy, the economy ..." trailed McCain, counting with his left hand, but ceding to Letterman on his third 'economy.'

"Did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?" asked the host.

"Um, I've met him, uh, you know, I mean, um ..." began McCain.

"Didn't you attend a fundraiser at his house?" asked Letterman.

"That's," sputtered McCain, looking trapped. "That's, what ... Is ..."

"I object, your honor!" shouted Paul Shaffer, Letterman's band leader, only after several seconds of McCain looking like a deer in a car's headlights.

The host laughed as he stared straight into the CBS cameras, broadcasting live. Smiling, Letterman concluded: "We'll be right back."

Watch Letterman confront McCain on his relationship with Gordon Liddy, from CBS' Late Show with David Letterman broadcast Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008: