The three gaffes in question are calling lenders to military members "Shylocks", calling east Asia "the Orient" and admitting that we may have to put boots on the ground in the fight against ISIS.
The first may have anti-Semitic reference to the Jewish lender in Merchant of Venice. The second I have never understood the offense at just as I wouldn't be offended to being referred to as Western or Occidental. And the third is the classic political definition of gaffe: telling the truth when it is uncomfortable. With special forces, intelligence, spotting and air rescue I would be very surprised that we don't already have boots on the ground there. And considering the respect Islamic terrorists have on front lines, anywhere in the world from Mosul to Ft. Hood could be considered a location to have boots on the ground.
From Wikipedia (Orient): Because of historical discrimination against Chinese and Japanese, in some parts of the United States, some people consider the term [Oriental] derogatory. For example, Washington state prohibits the word “Oriental” in legislation and government documents, preferring the word “Asian” instead.
Didn’t he also speak about reaching across the aisle to work with Bob Packwood (while he was addressing a womyn’s conference)?