Cookiegate Hits the Newstands

[Stephanie]

First posted at DU on Sunday, Cindy McCain's shocking Cookiegate scandal hit the blogosphere on Monday, cable news on Tuesday, and the print media today.

Cindy must be distraught! When will this erring intern be fired?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/06/17/2008-06-17_cindy_mccain_cooks_up_more_controversy.html

Cindy McCain cooks up more controversy
BY AMANDA L. PENTLER
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Wednesday, June 18th 2008, 12:00 AM
Otero/AP

Cindy McCain has not had good luck in the kitchen.

Cindy McCain's been caught with her hand in the cookie jar again.

McCain's recipe for oatmeal-butterscotch cookies, published on the Family Circle Web site earlier in the month, appears to be an almost exact replica of a Hershey’s recipe. (See below for both recipes.)

This is not the first time John McCain's wife has been caught up in a cooking controversy.

In April, McCain was accused of trying to pass off a recipe from the Food Network’s Web site as her own.

The mistake was attributed to an intern and the recipe was promptly removed from the McCain campaign Web site.

The current cookie recipe of dubious origination was submitted as part of a bake-off between the potential first ladies, sponsored by the magazine.

And the stakes are not small. The wives of the winners of the last four presidential elections have also won this competition.

Barack Obama's wife, Michelle Obama, offered up her own recipe of shortbread cookies with a zest of lemon and orange, and a "cheeky kick of almond liqueur Amaretto."

Here are the two recipes for oatmeal-butterscotch cookies:

"Cindy McCain’s Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies" (as it appears on the Family Circle Web site)

Ingredients:
¾ cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1-2/3 cups butterscotch chips

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degree F.
2. In a large bowl beat the butter or margarine, granulated sugar and brown sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well.
3. In a medium-size bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture; stir until blended. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
4. Bake at 375 degree F for 10 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Hershey's Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients:
¾ cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups quick cooking or regular rolled oats, uncooked
1-3/4 cups (11 oz. pkg.) HERSHEY’s Butterscotch Chips

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips; mix well. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

[Skittles]

1. the woman doesn't cook - why can't she just f***ing say it?

lots of us don't cook

[SlipperySlope]

15. How can your husband be president if you don't cook?

Speak some sense, will you?

[Swamp Rat]

2. BWAHAHAHAAAA!! .... thanks to YOU!

:bounce: :patriot: :hug: :woohoo: :toast: :party: :loveya:

[Stephanie]

5. Hey Swampy! TY!

:hi:

[Fridays Child]

3. Next, she'll claim she invented Waldorf Salad.

By the way, what a lovely USMC pin she's wearing in that photo. It probably stands for the United States of McCain. :eyes:

[VolcanoJen]

14. Or Cobb Salad, even

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobb_salad

Cobb salad was featured in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which a man falsely claims that his grandfather invented the salad to Larry David's disbelief. Larry goes on to research this claim and discovers that this is incorrect.

[jakem]

20. I think Waldorf was her ex-

[Fridays Child]

21. She likes her meat well-aged. Is there a recipe for that?

:bounce:

[jakem]

23. here's my own special recipe from a family friend...

1. buy low quality ground beef on sale at your local scratch-and-dent food mart. make sure it is already past its prime, and looking a little green around the edges

2. build many nice little houses for the beef, made of beer bottle caps.

3. stick an 'Merkin' flag in it

4. have it run for president.

5. fail.

[formercia]

24. Or marry someone old enough to be her father.

Now, there's aged meat for ya'. :rofl:

[grantcart]

4. lol this is absurdly wonderful

its a double gotcha

first you get the McCain campaign for getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar a second time.

second the absurdity of news magazines covering this when the nation is at war, the economy is sinking and filling up your gas tank takes more than $ 50.

Its a twofer Stephanie.


(BTW there could be a very simple answer but the McCains cannot use it because it will make them look even worse, Cindy McCain suffers from shorterm memory loss

This is from TPM on Feb 24

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/02/should-cindy-mccains-brain-dam.php


"In conversation, she will occasionally have trouble remembering certain facts, especially from the recent past, and if you look closely you realize she cannot make her right hand into a complete fist, which has affected her handwriting, if not her ability to grasp a gearshift knob. "It's not bad," she says, describing the damage to her hand. "I can function. I have short-term memory loss. I can remember all the major details of my life, but I sometimes can't remember what happened last week."

I suspect that John McCain, viewed his wife's stroke more in terms of how it would affect his bid for the presidency than else.

From a January 2005 Larry King show:

"MCCAIN: I was the one at home that everyone came to to program their computers, fix their phones, do anything electrical, technical, anything on the computer. I can't get near it now. I'm overwhelmed by it.

And it's weird for me. And I might also say, I suffer from migraines also. And your last caller that called in -- and I just had an episode about a week and a half ago, where I didn't know, I thought I was having another stroke. It was a different kind of...

In October 2007, Cindy McCain was hobbling around South Carolina as the result of a fall down in a Phoenix grocery store. Was her fall caused by her brain damage? Is the question any of our business?

Inevitably, the issue of the extent of Cindy McCain's brain damage will enter the public arena. So far, Mrs McCain has only had to field softballs lobbed at her by sympathetic journalists. Can the McCain campaign limit her public appearances to three-minute soundbites until November? I don' think so, not in today's political environment.

Some wag is bound to suggest a debate between Michelle and Cindy. And the jokes and parodies are bound to get a lot meaner from there.

Why, Senator McCain, would you do this to your wife?

[Swamp Rat]

6. "And the jokes and parodies are bound to get a lot meaner from there."

I have only just begun. :evilgrin:

[grantcart]

8. Now I have given the information about Cindy McCain's mental problems in strictest confidence

they are not to be repeated anywhere.

[Swamp Rat]

10. I'll have to think about that one...

However, it's 'no holds barred' for Crashy McBrainDamage. :)

[Stephanie]

7. Well that is a very sad story, and I do feel sorry for her.

However, I doubt she had anything to do with this cookie scandal. I think it was assigned (again) to an intern, and I think the intern (again) messed up. And I think the real scandal is the campaign's little fictional tale about how this recipe is a family favorite, and it used to be reserved for "special occasions," but now they never get together without a batch of Cindy's Oatmeal-Butterscotch. They just make stuff up, and they think the rest of us are all suckers.

[grantcart]

9. I am sure your correct - those damn interns - probably Flemish!!

[Donkey_Punch_Dubya]

16. Did she really say that? HAHAHAHAHA

It's one thing to throw out a recipe you stole from Hersheys as your own.

It's another to say how it's a rare treat, used in special family gatherings, blah blah. You lying trophy wife!

But the drug stealing an percocet addiction needs to make its way onto the newsstands next! I wonder if Hannity will call for a "full investigation into this so the American people can find out the truth"?

[Skittles]

17. if it had been Ms. Obama with the drug theft past

people would be sick of hearing it from Hannity by now

[WeDidIt]

18. They're using 1980 style political maneuvering

in the 21st century, and it's killing them.

In 1980, this sort of thing would never get out. Now, anybody with a computer and a belief they had seen the recipe before can Google it, prove their suspicions, and publish it within minutes.

[silverojo]

11. Because he's a power-hungry Rethug bastard

Next question....

[TheDonkey]

12. LOVE the cookie monster gif

[VolcanoJen]

13. Steph, you win the DU Scoop of the Week!

You broke Cookiegate!!!!!

As trite as other DUers think this might be, it actually means something. As in, McCain's oppo/intern/research shop sucks eggs.

Epic Fail!

[fasttense]

19. So Cindy tried to cheat on the cookie recipe

You would think that after the fake recipes on the McCain site, they would be more careful about providing recipes. You know, pay off a real cook for an original recipe or something. But no, they have to steal another popular recipe.

As the first poster said, Cindy does not cook.

So, if what you say is correct. "And the stakes are not small. The wives of the winners of the last four presidential elections have also won this competition."
Then does this cheating foretell of cheating by the McCain during the election?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

22. Cookie-gate? Do we need to attack the family

when John McCain presents such a good target himself?

And who makes up recipes anyway? On the (rare) occasion when I bake something, it's either from a box, or it's stolen from my "Job of Cooking" cookbook. Or is it "Joy of Cooking"? Something like that.

Or I get one off the web.

So if I share a recipe, you can bet it came from someone else. It may have been so long ago that I don't remember who I stole it from, but guaranteed I didn't invent it.

We need a better -gate.

:hi:

[smoogatz]

25. Ordinarily, any bit of news that exposed the McCains as the clueless, over-privileged,

self-aggrandizing morons that they are would be music to my ears (or eyes. Whatever). But this is so spectacularly trivial that no matter how hard I try I can't make myself care about it. Still, you seem to be having fun, so carry on.

[dflprincess]

26. Meanwhile, Halliburton and KB&R continue to pocket billions of taxpayer money in Iraq

glad the important stuff is being covered. :sarcasm:

[Stephanie]

27. As has been noted repeatedly:

WE are capable of multi-tasking. YMMV.

[dflprincess]

28. Some of us prefer to concentrate on the issues that actually affect people's lives

not the origins of a cookie recipe.

[Stephanie]

29. Then you go ahead and do that.

I'm able to do both. Enjoy!

[Cha]

30. And yet you took the time to

get on this thread and tell us that you "prefer to concentrate on the issues that actually affect people's lives".