http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080514_cindy_mccain_flaunts_her_privilege/Posted on May 14, 2008
Cindy McCain Flaunts Her Privilege
By Joe Conason
Double standards are endemic in American journalism. But Cindy McCain, wife of the Republican presidential candidate, displayed poor taste in flaunting her family’s special immunity from press scrutiny. Declaring on NBC’s “Today” that she would “never” release her income tax returns even if she becomes first lady, the Arizona beer heiress showed no concern that she and her husband will have to meet the same tests as other would-be White House occupants—ever.
Unfortunately, Mrs. McCain’s arrogance is probably well founded.
While her personal net worth is estimated somewhere north of $50 million, she can surely rely upon the discretion of right-wing media organizations and commentators, which so far have given her and her husband a free pass on the income tax question. In contrast to their unrelenting demands for absolutely complete disclosure by Bill and Hillary Clinton over alleged or suspected conflicts of interest, the so-called conservative media have remained mum about Mrs. McCain.
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Now comes Mrs. McCain, whose case suspiciously resembles that of Mrs. Kerry. Although she and her straight-talking husband keep their finances separate for tax purposes, her company plane has been flying him and his entourage of lobbyists around the country at bargain rates, a particular boon during the many months when his campaign was out of cash. As for conflicts of interest, the patina of reform has long since rubbed off Sen. McCain, whose penchant for using his office to assist donors with federal land swaps and other sweetheart deals should surprise no one paying close attention to his career.
Is there further revealing information to be found in Mrs. McCain’s tax returns? Nobody knows except Cindy, but the clues provided in her husband’s returns would certainly tantalize those busybodies on the right, if only the McCains were Democrats. For instance, they appear to have used their charitable foundation, in part, to ensure that their children attended elite schools, by strategically donating very large sums to those institutions. They also appear likely to have benefited very handsomely from the Bush tax cuts, which Sen. McCain formerly opposed but whose extension he now supports in perpetuity.
Yet Mrs. McCain is getting away with stonewalling on her taxes. “This is a privacy issue,” she said, and nobody has responded with the mockery directed at Mrs. Kerry. (Imagine the gale-force media uproar if the Clintons had refused to release their returns because they claimed to be protecting Chelsea.) Indeed, the deputy editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, who oversaw those august columns when they howled for disclosure from Mrs. Kerry in 2004, dismissed any concern over Mrs. McCain’s tax returns as “a fairly marginal issue.”
The question that remains is whether other major media outlets will challenge the McCains to meet the same standard of disclosure demanded from Democratic political families. So far the record is not encouraging.
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