Senator John McCain, who has a reputation for questionable, acerbic humor, last week suggested cigarette sales to Iran might solve the nuclear problem by killing off Iranians.

He had been asked about news reports of American sales of tobacco and other goods to Iran and chuckled, “Maybe that’s a way of killing ‘em.”

As soon as he uttered those words, his wife, Cindy, was seen poking him in the back to signal he had said something he ought not to.

McCain got the wifely message and immediately added, “I meant that as a joke – as a person who hasn’t had a cigarette in 28 years, 29 years.”

In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry, which is not noted for its sense of humor, objected that McCain’s comment exposed his “warmongering” attitude to foreign policy.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hossaini said, “McCain’s crude remark on the indiscriminate killing of the Iranian people not only testifies to a disturbed state of mind, but also his warmongering approach to foreign policy.”

Later, the Ministry’s website added a less feisty comment: “We condemn such jokes and believe them to be inappropriate for a U.S. presidential candidate. It is most evident that jokes about genocide will not be tolerated by Iranians and Americans.”

There was little reaction in the United States, however. That was very unlike the complaints that flew from many critics last year when McCain was asked a question at a veterans gathering about attacking Iran and he responded by referring to the satirical takeoff on the Beach Boys’ song, “Bar-Barbara Ann” by singing “Bomb, bomb Iran.”