| | | Page 1, 2, 3, 4 | John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 363570
1/28/2008 3:05 PM
Report abusive post | John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t
| Quote |
John McCain:Unfit to serve as Commander-In-Chief
The spoiled son of military privilege got a free ride throughout his military career despite repeated instances of sex scandals and screw-ups . . .
By Ted Sampley
U.S. Veteran Dispatch
January 27, 2008
John Sidney McCain III entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1954. Young McCain wanted to become an admiral. He planned to be the "first son and grandson of four star admirals" to achieve such a distinction. But that was not to be. McCain III possessed none of the innate character and discipline traits that helped mold his father and grandfather into great military leaders.
His father, John S. "Junior" McCain, and grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., were famous four-star Admirals in the U.S. Navy. His father commanded U.S. forces in Europe before becoming commander of American forces fighting in Vietnam. His grandfather commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Both men became highly influential in U.S. Navy operations.
At the Academy, aside being known as a "rowdy, raunchy, underachiever" who resented authority, Cadet McCain became infamous as a leader among his fellow midshipmen for organizing "off-Yard activities" and hard drinking parties. Robert Timberg wrote in his book, The Nightingale's Song, that "being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck."
McCain's grades were "marginal." He drew so many demerits for breaking curfew and other discipline issues that he graduated fifth from the bottom of the class of 1958. Despite his low "class standing," and no doubt because of the influence of his family of famous Admirals, McCain was leap-frogged ahead of more qualified applicants and granted a coveted slot to be trained as a navy pilot.
Good Party Animal - Bad Pilot:
He spent the next two and a half years as a "naval aviator in training" at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders.
While a pilot trainee, McCain continued to party hard. He drove a Corvette and dated an exotic dancer named "Marie the Flame of Florida." Timberg wrote that McCain "learned to fly at Pensacola, though his performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn't love it."
McCain Lost Five Military Aircraft
McCain, the "below par" pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.
While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: "Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral."
Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain's grandfather.
In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he had met at Annapolis. They were married in Philadelphia on July 3, 1965.
Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, "I've got a flameout" before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees.
The Navy dismissed the crash as "unavoidable" and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down and captured by the Vietnamese.
Post-POW Years: Political Ambition and a New, Young, Rich Wife
Upon his release from North Vietnam and return to the United States in 1973, McCain reunited with his wife, Carol, who had been permanently crippled in a car accident while he was a POW.
Still yearning to become an admiral, McCain enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. and underwent physical therapy in order to fly again. The Navy excused his permanent disabilities and reinstated him to flight status, effectively positioning him for promotion.
Timberg described McCain's advancement: "in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path."
While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs."
This was a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.
Timberg wrote, "Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."
In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position "to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy's Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn't long before the "fun loving and irreverent" McCain had turned the liaison office into a "late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind."
In 1979, while attending a military reception in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, who was the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.
He resigned from the Navy in 1981 and went to work for his father-in-law in Phoenix; where he used the opportunity to make powerful and wealthy friends in Arizona including banker Charles Keating and Duke Tully, the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic. Keating was later convicted of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and Tully was disgraced for concocting a phony military record of combat in Korea and Vietnam including medals for heroism.
McCain ran for Arizona's First Congressional District in 1982. McCain won the congressional seat. In 1987 McCain was elected to the Senate. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 363570 (OP)
1/28/2008 3:08 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
Timberg described McCain's advancement: "in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path."
While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs."
This was a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.
Timberg wrote, "Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of." |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 363570 (OP)
1/28/2008 3:10 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
In 1979, while attending a military reception in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, who was the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.
He resigned from the Navy in 1981 and went to work for his father-in-law in Phoenix; where he used the opportunity to make powerful and wealthy friends in Arizona including banker Charles Keating and Duke Tully, the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic. Keating was later convicted of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and Tully was disgraced for concocting a phony military record of combat in Korea and Vietnam including medals for heroism. |
| Satiric Axiom
User ID: 292560
1/28/2008 3:10 PM
 | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
You've forgotten to add the Republican cannibalizing of Their own as well,you know the one about the illicit nubian love child.
And You've Led what, Op?
"It isn't about what you & I think, it's about what is." |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 363570 (OP)
1/28/2008 3:14 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
Media Ignore John McCain's Offenses
Monday, November 19, 2007 7:59 AM
By: John LeBoutillier Article Font Size
The so-called mainstream media (MSM) has missed the boat on John McCain for 23 years.
While the Chris Mathews-Tim Russert-Imus crowd has slobbered all over McCain — mainly out of guilt over their own Vietnam War behavior — many others have known the real truth: the Arizona senator is a two-faced, sarcastic, mean-spirited, condescending hypocrite who has gotten away with numerous instances of terrible behavior because the MSM won’t take an objective look at him.
Now, however, the U.S. Veteran Dispatch, a highly respected and widely read veterans newspaper from Kinston, N.C., has published a riveting new article, "Betrayal, Deceit, Corruption, and John McCain," written by former U.S. Army Green Beret and two-tour Vietnam veteran Ted Sampley.
Among the revelations in this fascinating article: When McCain returned to the United States in 1973 after more than five years as a prisoner of war, he found his wife was a different person. Carol McCain, once a model, had been badly injured in a car wreck in 1969. The accident "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she gained a good deal of weight."
Despite her injures, she had refused to allow her POW husband to be notified about her condition, fearing that such news would not be good for him while he was being held prisoner.
But, just a couple years later, McCain, while pondering a future in politics, met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25-year-old woman from a very wealthy politically-connected Arizona family. While still married to Carol, McCain began an adulterous relationship with Cindy. He married Cindy in May 1980 just a month after dumping his crippled wife and securing a divorce.
McCain followed his young, millionairess wife back to Arizona.
Reports from a variety of U.S. publications exposed McCain's true scandalous character:
# The Arizona Republic, Oct. 17, 1989, reported ". . . both in telephone conversations with reporters and on a live radio talk show, the Republican senator was far from calm. He was agitated. Angry. And the way he dealt with unpleasant questions was to bully the questioners . . . 'You're a liar,' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when an Arizona Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife, Cindy McCain, and Keating . . . 'That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,' McCain sneered later in the same conversation. 'You do understand English, don't you?'
". . . Not content with just bullying reporters, McCain tried belittling them: 'It's up to you to find that out, kids.' . . . McCain wasn't talking to liars. He wasn't talking to juveniles. The senator was talking to two reporters.
"McCain, in a radio talk-show appearance last week condemned disclosures of his family's ties to Keating as 'irresponsible journalism.'"
# In an article in the Phoenix Gazette, on Nov. 13, 1989, "Reporters also 'discovered' that the senator's wife and father-in-law invested $359,100.00 in one of Mr. Keating's projects in 1986 . . ."
In was reported in another article from the Arizona Republic, dated Aug. 24, 1994, that Cindy McCain escaped prosecution for stealing/using drugs. "Cindy McCain, the wife of U.S. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, admitted in a series of media interviews Monday that she became addicted to the painkillers Percocet and Vicodin.
"She said that she used the drugs from 1989 to 1992 and acknowledged that she had stolen some pills from the American Voluntary Medical Team, a charitable organization of which she is president . . . at one point, McCain, 40, was ingesting 15 to 20 pills a day . . . the normal dosage for seriously ill patients is 6 to 10 a day for a short period."
Another article by the same publication, dated Jan. 17, 1995, detailed greetings sent by John McCain to a noted crime family member: "About 300 guests turned out Saturday night to celebrate the 90th birthday of Joseph 'Joe Bananas' Bonanno, retired boss of New York's Bonanno crime family. He retired to Tucson in 1968 . . . John McCain, R-Ariz., and Gov. Fife Symington sent their regards by telegram."
All of the above is but the tip of the iceberg on the real John McCain.
While trailing badly now for the GOP presidential nomination, mainly because he has ticked off so many mainstream conservatives over the years, he is a viable vice presidential choice. Thus it is vital that the real John McCain be exposed —all GOP voters need to know the truth.
Vist the U.S. Veteran Dispatch Web site ( [link to www.usvetdsp.com] and read Ted Sampley’s article. And then forward it to everyone you know.
John McCain must be stopped. And Ted Sampley’s well-researched article might just do it. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 363570 (OP)
1/28/2008 3:16 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
You've forgotten to add the Republican cannibalizing of Their own as well,you know the one about the illicit nubian love child.
And You've Led what, Op? Quoting: Satiric Axiom
No, do tell! |
| DanG
User ID: 335343
1/28/2008 3:34 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
this is a description of ALL the neocon scum. |
| pinkie
User ID: 285866
1/28/2008 4:09 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
His call sign (nick name pilots give to each other)is Playboy need I say more? |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 338377
1/28/2008 4:33 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
 |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 363646
1/28/2008 4:52 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
***McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. ***
This is slightly different than what I heard from one of the crew of firefighters on the deck when the events started, one of the few of that initial crew (only one?) to live.
His version was that John McCain's plane FIRED A ROCKET across the deck that hit another fully loaded airplane. McCain was then helped out of his plane and went below as planes started exploding and ammo and fuel started setting other planes on fire.
The "official" explanation according to the crew guy I knew was that there was a wiring malfunction and that is what caused the rocket to fire. He didn't believe it though since McCain was known to be very reckless around his aircraft and he always thought that McCain accidentally bumped the switch safety off and then bumped the switch again.
Anyway fwiw and I have no confirmation about his version of the events though I will note McCain's conduct of reckless activities with his aircraft over the years |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 255704
1/28/2008 5:13 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
McCain was/is clinically insane, but having the connections he did (father, grandfather both admirals), this was swept under the rug. |
| The Monk
User ID: 274840
1/28/2008 5:39 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
Yep. We almost got rid of this problem child on the Forrestal, but you know its hard to change timelines. He beats Billary in 2008 and leads the country valiantly into armageddon, killing- oh i don't know- probably a few billion people except for those that can find their way into caves. Putin and McCain don't mix.
That's why we have Obama running now, so I guess literally vote for Obama or die. LOL. |
| Dr_Kynes
User ID: 341929
1/28/2008 5:51 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
Oh Great...another brain dead "fortunate son" who loves war and probably never really was a POW like the rest of the poor saps....might even had his MK Ultra programing during that time.
I'm tired of these shit-for-brains politicians who are bent on destroying america.
How bout someone who was in the military who actually loaths war and only wants it to right severe injustice and not for money grabbing oil conglomerate's profits.
They might even allow McVain accomplish more than bush did so it will seem to the sheeple that he is on the right track even though the same WW III is coming as well as economic collapse. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 283256
1/28/2008 7:29 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
Great ! I did not know how closely his life parallels that of George Bush jr. Criminally incompetent turds of a feather float to the top together.......... |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 573
1/28/2008 7:51 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
I got the impression during the debates that McCain is an arrogant pompass smartass. AND....what the Hell did he do in Washington? He is also known as a flip flopper. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 349837
1/29/2008 12:10 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
***McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. ***
This is slightly different than what I heard from one of the crew of firefighters on the deck when the events started, one of the few of that initial crew (only one?) to live.
His version was that John McCain's plane FIRED A ROCKET across the deck that hit another fully loaded airplane. McCain was then helped out of his plane and went below as planes started exploding and ammo and fuel started setting other planes on fire.
The "official" explanation according to the crew guy I knew was that there was a wiring malfunction and that is what caused the rocket to fire. He didn't believe it though since McCain was known to be very reckless around his aircraft and he always thought that McCain accidentally bumped the switch safety off and then bumped the switch again.
Anyway fwiw and I have no confirmation about his version of the events though I will note McCain's conduct of reckless activities with his aircraft over the years Quoting: Anonymous Coward 363646
I thought I heard that same story as well. Maybe he had the official version "rewritten" once he became a politician.
I would like to find out the truth about that.
I also heard he collaborated with the enemy as a POW because they knew his daddy was an Admiral, and other POW's hated him for it. I think he got his own room or something, and did or said other shit that he shouldn't have, that would've gotten him court-martialled. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 358970
1/29/2008 1:39 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
wow, at one time i tried to like mccain because of his war experience , but the more i found out about him, the less likeable he became. I can barely see him as presidential material. He is just fodder for the presidential race
the republicans want romney, he is the only pretty face, and that counts alot with stupid Americans
but the people want RON PAUL
did i say it loud enough? RON PAUL for president |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 349837
1/29/2008 1:45 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
if McCain wins the nomination, all this dirt will come tumbling out...this is ironic because the Repubs want Hillary to get the nod so they dump the dirt on her and then win |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 204149
1/30/2008 12:54 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
fuck mccain he's a slime ball and a loser |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 269684
1/30/2008 9:40 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
None of the candidates who have run against McCain have ever had anyone throw mud at McCain. His first wife has not riled against him nor his children from that marriage. Even if his first wife had not been in a tragic car accident, being away from your spouse for 5 difficult years changed both of them..one having been left medically untreated and tortured for 5 years. You survive and life goes on. McCain was cleared of all Keating 5 charges--it just never got the press. All they said was that he trusted to blindly and showed poor judgement but DID NOTHING CRIMINALLY WRONG. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 250177
1/30/2008 9:45 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
OP u r a bastard for spitting on the honor! of a decarated veterenarean! |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 272640
1/30/2008 9:50 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
Realistically, I am for Ron Paul, but the Republican candidate will be either McCain or Romney. If Romney wins the election, we will just have another chimp clone in the White House and the status quo will remain. The Democrat woul be Hillary or Obama. Sounds like a lose-lose proposition whoever wins, but Romney would be the worst choice of all. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 357422
1/30/2008 9:55 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
Looks like the republicans are continuing their penchant for putting up idiots for presidential candidates. However, I expect a lot of surprises in this campaign, so maybe someone with intelligence might still prevail. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 364740
1/30/2008 10:00 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
He's a one-man demolition crew. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 72121
1/30/2008 11:19 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
His wife Cindy was addicted to percocets and stealing them from a medial aid place she was volunteering at! |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 72121
1/30/2008 11:24 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
How Cindy McCain was outed for drug addiction
When an attempt to get tough with a whistleblower backfired in 1994, the McCain spin machine went into overdrive, and the candidate's wife confessed to problems the media was already poised to reveal.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Amy Silverman
Oct. 18, 1999 | PHOENIX -- GOP presidential candidate John McCain's wife Cindy took to the airwaves last week, recounting for Jane Pauley (on "Dateline") and Diane Sawyer (on "Good Morning America") the tale of her onetime addiction to Percocet and Vicodin, and the fact that she stole the drugs from her own nonprofit medical relief organization.
It was a brave and obviously painful thing to do.
It was also vintage McCain media manipulation.
Also Today
No place like home?
While his campaign is gaining some momentum in places like New Hampshire and South Carolina, Arizona Sen. John McCain is locked in a tough primary fight in his own backyard.
By Mike Murphy
I had déjà vu watching Cindy McCain on television, perky in a purple suit with tinted pearls to match. It was so reminiscent of the summer day in 1994 when suddenly, years after she'd claimed to have kicked her habit, McCain decided to come clean to the world about her addiction to prescription painkillers.
I believe she wore red that day. She granted semi-exclusive interviews to one TV station and three daily newspaper reporters in Arizona, tearfully recalling her addiction, which came about after painful back and knee problems and was exacerbated by the stress of the Keating Five banking scandal that had ensnared her husband. To make matters worse, McCain admitted, she had stolen the drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team, her own charity, and had been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The local press cooed over her hard-luck story. One of the four journalists spoon-fed the story -- Doug McEachern, then a reporter for Tribune Newspapers, now a columnist with the Arizona Republic (and, it must be added, normally much more acerbic) -- wrote this rather typical lead:
"She was blonde and beautiful. A rich man's daughter who became a politically powerful man's wife. She had it all, including an insidious addiction to drugs that sapped the beauty from her life like a spider on a butterfly."
What McEachern and the others didn't know was that, far from being a simple, honest admission designed to clear her conscience and help other addicts, Cindy McCain's storytelling had been orchestrated by Jay Smith, then John McCain's Washington campaign media advisor. And it was intended to divert attention from a different story, a story that was getting quite messy.
I know, because I had been working on that story for months at Phoenix New Times. I had finally tracked down the public records that confirmed Cindy McCain's addiction and much more, and the McCains knew I was about to get them. Cindy's tale was released on the day the records were made public.
But the story I was pursuing was not so much about Cindy McCain's unfortunate addiction. It was much more about her efforts to keep that story from coming to light, and the possible manipulation of the criminal justice system by her husband and his cohorts. The irony is that Cindy's secret would have stayed secret if John McCain's heavy-hitting lawyer, John Dowd (of D.C.'s Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld; his most recent claim to fame was serving as co-counsel for fellow partner Vernon Jordan during impeachment) hadn't heavy-handedly pulled out all the stops to protect the McCain family.
Dowd tried to get back at the man on Cindy McCain's staff, Tom Gosinski, who had blown the whistle on her drug pilfering to the DEA. But in the course of trying to get local law enforcement officials to investigate Gosinski -- Dowd and the McCains considered him an extortionist; others might call him a whistleblower -- Dowd set in motion a process that would eventually bring the whole sordid story to light. When that maneuver backfired, the McCain media machine went into overdrive to spin the story.
It's a story of unintended consequences. It's also a story of power politics and media manipulation that's very un-McCain-like -- if you believe his national media hagiography.
But both of Cindy McCain's staged, teary drug-addiction confessions have been vintage John McCain. His MO is this: Get the story out -- even if it's a negative story. Get it out first, with the spin you want, with the details you want and without the details you don't want.
McCain did it with the Keating Five, and with the story of the failure of his first marriage (Cindy is his second wife). So what you recall after the humble, honest interview, is not that McCain did favors for savings and loan failure Charlie Keating, or that he cheated on his wife, but instead what an upfront, righteous guy he is.
Candor is the McCain trademark, but what the journalists who slobber over the senator fail to realize is that the candor is premeditated and polished. John McCain shoots from the hip -- but only after carefully rehearsing the battle plan, to be sure he won't get shot himself.
This is the story of a time that strategy backfired, and yet the McCain machine still managed to contain the damage. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 72121
1/30/2008 11:27 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
How Cindy McCain was outed for drug addiction | page 1, 2, 3
In the early 1990s, Tom Gosinski was the director of government and international affairs for the American Voluntary Medical Team, which did relief and medical volunteer work in third world countries.
Hired by Cindy McCain in 1991, Gosinski enjoyed his job, but he began to notice McCain's erratic behavior in the summer of 1992. In his journal, he wrote that he and others suspected the boss was addicted to painkillers and might have been stealing them from the organization.
From Gosinski's journal, July 27, 1992:
I have always wondered why John McCain has done nothing to fix the problem. He must either not see that a problem exists or ... not choose to do anything about it. It would seem that it would be in everyone's best interest to come to terms with the situation. And do whatever is necessary to fix it. There is so much at risk: The welfare of the children; John's political career; the integrity of Hensley & Company [Cindy's parents' business]; the welfare of Jim and Smitty Hensley [Cindy's parents]; and the health and happiness of Cindy McCain.
The aforementioned matters are of great concern to those directly involved but my main concern is the ability of AVMT to survive a major shake-up. If the DEA were to ever conduct an audit of AVMT's inventory, I am afraid of what the results might be ... It is because of [Cindy McCain's] willingness to jeopardize the credibility of those who work for her that I truly worry.
During my short tenure at AVMT I have been surrounded by what on the surface appears to be the ultimate all-American family. In reality, I am working for a very sad, lonely woman whose marriage of convenience to a U.S. Senator has driven her to: distance herself from friends; cover feelings of despair with drugs; and replace lonely moments with self-indulgences.
In his journal-writing over the next few months, Gosinski would alternately complain about Cindy McCain and express concern for her well-being.
In January 1993, McCain fired Gosinski. She told him that AVMT was having financial problems and couldn't afford him.
Gosinski had already come to suspect that Cindy McCain had gotten volunteer doctors with AVMT to sign prescriptions for her, and had used employees' names to fill them. Worried his own name had been used (he would eventually learn that it had), Gosinski approached DEA agents in the spring of 1993 to report McCain's suspicious behavior. The DEA launched an investigation.
Almost a year later, with the statute of limitations about to run out, Gosinski hired a labor attorney and sued Cindy McCain for wrongful termination. He intended to claim that she fired him because she suspected he knew about her addiction, but the lawsuit never got that far. Instead, Gosinski's attorney wrote to the McCains, asking for a settlement of $250,000. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 72121
1/30/2008 11:28 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
How Cindy McCain was outed for drug addiction | page 1, 2, 3
Rumors about the untold details of the lawsuit hit the cocktail-party circuit that spring, but the story was locked up tight. As a federal criminal investigation, the DEA probe was completely secret; none of it was public record.
The entire story would likely have gone unreported if attorney John Dowd hadn't entered the picture. He wrote to Maricopa County attorney Richard Romley, a political ally of McCain, and asked him to investigate Gosinski for extortion.
"We believe that Mr. Gosinski is aware that in the past Cindy had an addiction to prescription painkillers ... Given Cindy's public position, exposure of this sensitive matter would harm her reputation, career, the operation of AVMT, and subject her to contempt and ridicule," Dowd wrote on April 28, 1994.
Thus began the inadvertent outing of Cindy McCain. Although the federal investigative materials were not public, the county investigative materials were. Romley launched an investigation, and one of the first things his people did, naturally, was ask the feds to turn over their investigative materials.
New Times finally got hold of the county investigative materials and we did our own story. So did the Arizona Republic, which was uncharacteristically aggressive, perhaps because the McCain machine had left the paper out of the loop on the story of Cindy's addiction.
Among the questions asked: Did Cindy McCain get preferential treatment by the feds? True, Cindy was a first-time offender, which partially explains the fact that she did no prison time; instead, she entered a diversion program. But at the time, defense lawyers told New Times that if Cindy McCain had been a poor minority and not married to a U.S. senator, she likely would have been locked up.
Did Gosinski intend to blackmail Cindy McCain? He told New Times he didn't. Other AVMT employees told county investigators that he did. But the time line makes extortion hard to believe, since Gosinski had already gone to the DEA before he brought his lawsuit against the McCains.
In any case, Tom Gosinski didn't out Cindy McCain. John Dowd did, and then Jay Smith was called in for the clean-up.
A few postscripts: Tom Gosinski left town shortly after Cindy McCain's story broke. By that time, his lawsuit had died, ignored. The county did not pursue the extortion investigation against him.
John Max Johnson, the doctor who had written the prescriptions for Cindy McCain, surrendered his medical license.
Cindy McCain still does relief work and raises the McCains' four children.
John McCain, of course, is running for president.
And only a handful of people remember the details of Cindy McCain's 1994 "outing" for drug addiction and drug pilfering, and the work of the McCain machine to protect her.
salon.com | Oct. 18, 1999 |
| <?>
User ID: 341528
1/30/2008 11:43 AM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
I'm not sure of the meaning of this post, or its' purpose? Not sure who is trying to do the smear here, ˝Mitt, Huck, Hill, Obama all are suspect.
First off, I'm not a McCain fan, but to attack someone who was actually in the war seems rather warmed over Swift boatish.
It strikes me as rather weird that our sitting President has all the negatives put forth in this hack piece...... party animal, dope head, alcholholic, DUI, failure at all buisness kinda guy, but he didn't see one day of combat in the war.
Yet there he is in the Oval Office going on 8 years.....just weird I say......or maybe sick is the word. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 210934
1/30/2008 11:40 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs."
This was a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions. |
| Pinkie
User ID: 364572
1/30/2008 11:55 PM | | Re: John McCain: Lost 5 Aircraft and graduated 5th from last in Annapolis; known as "Party Animal" who leapfrogged others because of his daddy t | Quote |
His wife Cindy was addicted to percocets and stealing them from a medial aid place she was volunteering at! Quoting: Anonymous Coward 72121
I read about that in the New Times in Phoenix. I figured that was why he lost the nomination last time. She is a huge pill popper. She looks like she hates her husband. She kisses him really weird, and he always has a scorned husband look on his face when they kiss him. He must be in the dog house all the time. They look really unnatural together. |
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