Cindy McCain

[Judy Harder]

Cindy McCain

Bet you would have never guessed this one!  No matter your

politics.  The media will never tell of this, so pass it on. 

GO

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal on Cindy McCain, John's

wife.  All I ever saw was this attractive woman standing beside

John.  I was surprised how talented and involved with world problems

she is.  This is a summary of the article.

She graduated from Southern Cal and was a special-needs

teacher.

After her Dad died she became involved with his beer distributing firm and

is now the chairwoman.  Sales have doubled since she has taken over

from her father.   

They have a marriage prenuptial agreement, her assets remain

separate.       

She is involved around the world clearing land mines - travels to these

countries on a detonation team and service on their board.

They have a 19 year old serving in Iraq, another son in the Naval Academy,

a daughter recently graduated from Columbia Univ., an adopted daughter in

high school, and a son who is the finance guy at the beer firm.

Raised kids in Phoenix, AZ rather than Washington DC.(better

atmosphere)  He commuted.

  In

1991, Mrs. McCain came across a girl in an orphanage in Bangladesh. 

Mother Teresa implored Mrs. McCain to take the baby with severe cleft

palate.  She did so without first telling her husband. The couple

adopted the girl who has had a dozen operations to repair her cleft palate

and other medical problems.

They have a Family Foundation for children's causes.

          She's active with 'Halo Trust' - to clear land mines, provide water and food in

war ravaged and developing countries.

She will join an overseas mission of 'Operation Smile', a charity for

corrective surgery on children's faces

She has had two back surgeries and became addicted to pain killers. 

She talks openly about it which she says is part of the recovery

process.

I'm surprised the media is so quiet about her attributes. She sounds more

capable than Hillary or Obama.  We would really get two for the price

of one.  A person with business and international experience. 

John did work for the firm for awhile when he left the Navy.  She,

however, has the real business experience.  Very interesting.

[Catwoman]

I didn't know about her philanthropic pursuits but I did know about the child that she took with the cleft palate from Mother Theresa.  I have been far more impressed with the understated Cindy McCain than I have been with the other women involved in this political race.  It would appear that she lets her actions speak for themselves.  An admirable trait!

[Teresa]

John McCain's son:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?hp


His son is home :
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/02/14/McCains_Marine_son_home_from_Iraq/UPI-19201203024920/

[momof 2boys]

This sounds like a person I could vote for.  Too bad her spouse is the one running!!!

[Catwoman]

Hmmm...guess we know who you are voting for now!

[sixdogsmom]

Yeah especially when she sets up a clinic for the poor and steals the drugs for herself. Caught redhanded by DEA. Otherwise she is a wonderful person for an adultress.

[Teresa]

eeeuuuwwww... 


I don't think you want to bring up the adulteress word... unless of course you have solid proof and you were there to witness the fact.    I wasn't and I have no idea if she committed adultery or not.. ( and I don't really care either)

THAT is a can of worms which calls the kettle black from both sides. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


In 1989, Cindy McCain became addicted to opioid painkillers such as Percocet and Vicodin, which she initially took to alleviate pain following two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs and to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five scandal. There, her role as a bookkeeper who had difficulty finding receipts for trips on Charles Keating's jet caused complications for her husband when he was already being examined for his role regarding oversight of Keating's bank. The addiction progressed to where she was taking upwards of twenty pills a day[8] and she resorted to stealing drugs from her own AVMT. During 1992, Tom Gosinski, the director of government and international affairs for AVMT, discovered her drug theft. Subsequently in 1992, her parents staged an intervention to force her to get help; she told her husband about her problem, attended a drug treatment facility, began outpatient sessions, and ended her three years of active addiction. A hysterectomy in 1993 resolved her back pain.[

In January 1993, McCain terminated Gosinski's employment on grounds of budgetary reasons. In spring 1993, Gosinski tipped off the Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate McCain's drug theft, and a federal investigation ensued. McCain's defense team, led by Washington lawyer John Dowd, secured an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office that limited her punishment to financial restitution and enrollment in a diversion program,  without any public disclosure.

Meanwhile, in early 1994 Gosinski filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against McCain, which he told her he would settle for $250,000. In April 1994, Dowd requested that Maricopa County officials investigate Gosinski for extortion. The Phoenix New Times was about to publish a negatively-cast article about the whole affair. Cindy McCain pre-empted this by publicly revealing her past addiction, stating she hoped it would give fellow drug addicts courage in their struggles: "Although my conduct did not result in compromising any missions of AVMT, my actions were wrong, and I regret them." A flurry of press attention followed, including charges by Gosinski that she had asked him to lie concerning her drug use when the McCains were applying to adopt their baby from Bangladesh and statements by past AVMT employees that Gosinski had once threatened to blackmail her. The Arizona Republic published an editorial cartoon ridiculing the motivations for her AVMT work and an award dinner in her honor was canceled citing poor ticket sales. In the end, both Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation against him were dropped.

AVMT concluded its activities in 1995. That year, McCain founded a new organization, the Hensley Family Foundation, which donates monies towards children's programs in Arizona and nationally, and she was largely a stay-at-home mom during the balance of the 1990s. She also held positions as vice president, director, and vice chair of Hensley & Co

[Teresa]

Dan Nowicki, Bill Muller
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 1, 2007 10:33 AM

CHAPTER V: ARIZONA, THE EARLY YEARS

In 1979, John McCain came face to face with his future.

He was in Hawaii, attending a military reception. While there, he met a young, blond former cheerleader from Phoenix named Cindy Hensley.

McCain was immediately dazzled and spent the event chatting her up.

"She was lovely, intelligent and charming, 17 years my junior but poised and confident," McCain wrote in his 2002 book, Worth the Fighting For. "I monopolized her attention the entire time, taking care to prevent anyone else from intruding on our conversation. When it came time to leave the party, I persuaded her to join me for drinks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. By the evening's end, I was in love."

McCain recalls that both he and Cindy initially misled each other about their ages. McCain made himself a little younger, and Cindy made herself a little older. They found out their real ages when the local paper published them. McCain was 43, Cindy 25.

  "So our marriage," McCain cracks, "is really based on a  tissue of lies."

Early in the courtship, McCain called Cindy from Beijing, where he was traveling with a Senate Foreign Relations Committee contingent. Cindy was in the hospital recuperating from minor knee surgery. She thanked him for the lovely flowers in her room, sent from "John."

What McCain didn't tell Cindy was that he hadn't sent the flowers. They were from another John, who lived in Tucson.

"I never thanked him," Cindy notes with a grin.

After a whirlwind courtship, John asked Cindy to marry him. But there were some details to clear out of the way.

McCain needed a divorce from Carol, his wife of 14 years from whom he was separated. After McCain's dramatic homecoming from Vietnam, the couple grew apart. Their marriage began disintegrating while McCain was stationed in Jacksonville.

        McCain has admitted to having extramarital affairs.       

"If there was one couple that deserved to make it, it was John and Carol McCain," author Robert Timberg wrote in John McCain: An American Odyssey. "They endured nearly six years of unspeakable trauma with courage and grace. In the end it was not enough. They won the war but lost the peace."

In February 1980, less than a year after he met Cindy, McCain petitioned a Florida court to dissolve his marriage to Carol, calling the union "irretrievably broken."

Bud Day, alawyer and fellow POW, handled the divorce proceedings.

"I thought things were going fairly well, and then it just came apart," Day later recalled. "That happened to quite a few. . . . I don't fault (Carol), and I don't really fault John, either."

In his book Worth the Fighting For, McCain offers his own post-mortem on his failed marriage. He "had not shown the same determination to rebuild (his) personal life" as he had to excel in his naval career.

"Sound marriages can be hard to recover after great time and distance have separated a husband and wife

. We are different people when we reunite," McCain wrote. "But my marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine."

Carol, who remains on good terms with her former husband, generally has avoided reporters interested in hearing her side of the story.

She did briefly address her divorce to Timberg: "The breakup of our marriage was not caused by my accident or Vietnam or any of those things. I don't know that it might not have happened if John had never been gone. I attribute it more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else."

In the divorce settlement, McCain was generous with Carol, the mother of their daughter Sidney and two sons, whom McCain had adopted. Among other things, McCain gave Carol the rights to houses in Florida and Virginia and agreed to provide insurance or pay for additional treatment she was expected to require.

Except for signing the property settlement, Carol did not participate in the divorce. A court summons and other paperwork sent to her during the proceeding went unanswered.

In April 1980, the judge entered a default judgment and declared the marriage dissolved.

A month later, McCain married Cindy in Phoenix, where the couple would move. The wedding party included a couple of McCain's high-profile friends from Washington. Sen. William Cohen was the best man. Sen. Gary Hart was a groomsman.

Carol went her separate way, finding work as a personal aide to Nancy Reagan during the 1980 presidential primary campaign and later running the White House Visitors Office.

[Catwoman]

Ohmigawd...I knew that he had divorced his wife to marry a trophy wife but didn't know all of the details...where do you come up with this stuff??  Man, it's things like this that keep me a firmly registered Independent.