McCain admitted, she had stolen the drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/18/drugs/

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.

I had deja 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. snip

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.

[bluedeminredstate]

1. I wish more people knew the real story of how Cindy's addiction came to light

Thanks for this post. Here's another link to the smear campaign they did on the whistleblower.


http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1994-09-08/news/opiate-for-the-mrs

You gotta love the title of the article, "Opiate for the Mrs." I sure wish we's see that as a headline for a news story on Faux or one of the other McCain propaganda machines. If you just read the first page of this article you'll see how the McCains manipulated the press from the get go on this story. Why it's been totally off the radar in this campaign is beyond me. If it were Michelle Obama stealing narcotics from orphans and refugees, the screams of indignation and outrage would sound like a a nationwide version of the unending screech heard when they play the check of the Emergency Broadcast System on our televisions.

[geiger]

2. I remember. You wore blue, I wore grey....

[SOS]

3. Fake prescriptions, theft of drugs and lies to cover up

But not a day in jail for Queen Cindy.

[Vanje]

6. Silly. Jail is for....

....black people,

the lower classes ,

...you know...CRIMINALS!

[chat_noir]

4. We need a FOIA to the DEA regarding Cindy's investigation

[davidnc76]

5. Drugstore Cowboy ...

I can see her running into pharmacies and pretending to have seizures, while her friends loot the place!!!