How John McCain dumped his first (disabled) wife and married the heiress

[pnwmom]

http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/03/06/carol/print.html

SNIP

It seems that McCain, who had once revealed to fellow prisoners of war in Vietnam that he wanted to be president, was restless in 1979. As Navy liaison to the Senate, he didn't have the career momentum he had counted on to propel him into an admiralty and on to the White House. He was 42, mired in stifling ordinariness. (Civilians call it "midlife crisis.")

But McCain was making bold career moves on the home front, hotly pursuing a 25-year-old blond from a wealthy Arizona family -- while married. Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches. The couple had three children, whom Carol cared for alone while her husband was in Vietnamese prisons.

McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased.

The story is compelling -- and repellent -- for a lot of reasons. And it raises some familiar questions. We have to wonder why Americans are able to excoriate a presidential candidate (or president) who cheats on his wife but accept one who did the same thing with the concentration and energy of a military strategist. Is it because McCain didn't get caught? Is it because he married his mistress? At this point, after much navel- and penis-gazing, it seems like a moot question, if only for reasons of sheer exhaustion.

SNIP

[Virginia Dare]

1. Well, McCain is an honorable man..

so I guess he probably didn't dump her via the U.S. Postal Service like Newty Gringrich did to his terminally ill wife....:eyes:

[blondeatlast]

6. He was seen often in public with Cindy Hensley before the divorce.

(which Sepp didn't want to grant). I'd say that's kind of tacky, but who am I (besides a person with tact)? :mad:

[Virginia Dare]

8. Don't forget her daddy gave him a job..

shilling beer for him, then bought him his first political seat. After daddy died, she took hold of the purse strings.

[Canuckistanian]

20. Or in a press conference like Giuliani did

Honestly, what's with these Republicans and their need to upgrade their wives?

[speedoo]

2. K&R, and bookmarked.

Time to expose this scumbag.

How come we never hear anything about his children? Could it be they don't care for him much?

[niyad]

3. didn't KO show a pic of megan mccain wearing what appeared to be a (oh horrors)

purple jihad-chic scarf

[CanonRay]

5. Ditto

[malaise]

4. Please send your link to Brokaw

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3381480

[KG]

7. John McCain: adulterer

[pnwmom]

9. Republican-adulterer: isn't that kind of redundant? n/t

[central scrutinizer]

10. another great myth-busting article from NY Review of Books

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21470

excerpt:

They married in May 1980, and from this union tumbled other fortuities. That she lived in Arizona meant that McCain would be moving to a state—with which he'd had even less association than Hillary Clinton had had with New York in 1999—whose growing population would gain it an extra congressional seat after the 1980 census, a circumstance on which his eye was keenly fixed. Her background—her father, Jim, ran the country's largest Anheuser-Busch distributorship—meant he would have the money and connections to launch the political career he had been coveting since he started meeting those famous pols. McCain hardly knew a soul in Arizona, but already he was telling friends in 1981 that he would swoop into the new seat in 1982 and then succeed Barry Goldwater in the Senate when Goldwater retired.

Then, one piece of bad luck: the new district would be cut in Tucson, not Phoenix. But this was soon followed by the greatest fortuity of all. John Rhodes, the Phoenix Republican who was the House minority leader, unexpectedly announced his retirement. The McCains lived just outside the Rhodes district, but Cindy's money ensured that they were able to buy a house in it and move in immediately. During a primary campaign against three other Republicans, he was, inevitably, branded a carpetbagger and opportunist.

[blondeatlast]

11. The Hensley-McCain intro/marriage was as engineered as a Lamborghini.

It's rumored that Keating introduced them.

Tha t would be Charles Keating, land developer, S&L crook, and sociopolitical twit of the first order.

[KG]

13. john mccain - carpetbagger and opportunist, adulterer and crook.

think the MSM is going to trot out any of these stories?

[pnwmom]

17. Good article, but includes what I think is an untruth -- that they were

separated when he met Cindy. Every other source I've seen says they were still living together, according to their friends -- and that the divorce came as a shock to Carol.

[aikoaiko]

12. It just amazes me how vulnerable this guy is -- how do think he can be elected?

Denial. Its the only plausible explanation.

[Hannah Bell]

14. or possibly, he's not supposed to win. sure seems that way -

not popular with the base, or the insiders, & a long list of negatives.

[Wiley50]

18. Not meant to win until Hil Lost the primary

Hil was the corporatists pick

I strongly suspect the ties between the Bush and Clinton family are quite true

So now they either have to game the election via Diebold, ect

or get Hil on the ticket and have something unfortunate happen to Barack

We all knew they were gonna get desperate in the last few months

It's a truly dangerous time

[Disturbed]

15. After that pathetic speech last night McShameless should

retire. How Rethugs can support this fool is beyond comprehension.

[WCGreen]

19. Elected!

He'll be lucky enough to get erected after Obama is through with him...

Sorry, I just couldn't resist...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. ....

:rofl:

[OhioChick]

16. He's a POS. n/t