What Is Roe V Wade All About? Don't Ask Cindy McCain

Cindy McCain may not be the one that is running for President, but when it comes to issues that affect women, you'd think she'd at least know the basic facts of a few issues. One of the most important social debates that Republicans have used effectively as a wedge is abortion rights. Democrats want to keep Roe v. Wade on the books, keeping abortion legal for those that make the choice to have one. So when Cindy went on Katie Couric's show, a simple answer, either wanting to keep the practice legal and disagreeing with her husband and Sarah Palin, or toeing the party line.

Check out what she had to say:

Couric: And do you believe Roe V. Wade should be overturned?

McCain: No. no.

Couric: No. Why not? Your husband does.

McCain: No. I don't think he does.

Couric: He believes it should be overturned. That's what he told me, and that it should go to the states.

McCain: Well, in that respect. Yes, yeah, I do. I understand what you're saying now. It's a states issue.

Couric: So, you believe it should be overturned or shouldn't be overturned.

McCain: I believe it's a states issue. That I do believe.

Oh dear. OH, DEAR. The campaign later clarified that Cindy McCain does not believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned, even though, you might know this already but, it was the express purpose of the Roe decision not to let abortion become a "states issue."

It seems that she doesn't have a clue as to what she thinks. Also, the campaign itself doesn't really know what is going on if they allowed that "opinion" to be clarified that implies she opposes her husband after agreeing with him. It looks like Sarah Palin's mom isn't the only family surrogate that needs a large dose of GOP message control.

Another House McCain Doesn't Want You To Know About

Yesterday's news was all about John and Cindy McCain's four seven eight twelve multi-million dollar homes. However there is another house that wasn't mentioned because they don't own it at the moment but goes straight to the heart of John McCain's willingness to do anything for the sake of political expediency. That little house is located at 921 E. Lamplighter Lane in Tempe, Arizona and it was bought in 1982, the year McCain ran for Congress.

From The East Valley Tribune:

Collins and Jeff Grillion, young mortgage consultants, said McCain's residency never came up before they closed on the foreclosed two-story house in April. Neighbors over their back fence were the first to pass on the news, and from then on whenever they met others living on Lamplighter Lane in The Lakes subdivision they heard it again and again.

"They'd say, 'You'd never believe who used to live there,' " Grillion said.

Collins admitted they possess no proof that under their roof once lived the man who may become the 44th president of the United States of America.

But the Maricopa County Recorder does hold the conclusive evidence. A warranty deed from 1987 shows the home being sold by Eagle Enterprises, whose general partner is listed as James W. Hensley - McCain's father-in-law.

Now being as wealthy as the McCain's are, why would they want to live a block south of Baseline Rd. when they can easily live in the more affluent areas of Scottsdale and Paradise Valley? Well that is because the house was then in the 1st Congressional District and McCain wanted to run for the seat even though he wasn't a resident.

As Timberg states in his book, "John McCain: An American Odyssey," on the very day of Rhodes' news conference announcing his retirement, Cindy bought the Lamplighter house.

And in late 1986, before McCain was voted into his first term in the Senate, a report from The Associated Press revealed he planned to move after the election and wanted that news kept quiet.

A reporter had found permits filed with the city for the remodeling of Cindy's childhood home in north-central Phoenix. Oddly, the permits were submitted under the name "Smith" - the maiden name of Cindy's mother - rather than McCain.

How sneaky! Is that the type of man you want in the White House? I think not.

CNN Highlights McCain's Adulterous Past

What happened to his marriage with Carol, how he met Cindy and the lies he told to make it all look better:

John McCain Is A Technophobe, Resents His Wife Over It Too

John McCain has admitted previously to be a computer illiterate that leaves everything electronic to his wife. However, the story runs deeper than that as it seems that McCain is an outright technophobe and apparently he resents his wife for her technological prowess. According to the AP, it is one of twenty-five things you may not know about the Arizonan Senator.

From ThinkProgress:

The AP has released a “pre-convention package” with lists of “25 Things About Obama” and “25 Things About McCain.” Number two on the McCain list is a tidbit from Cindy McCain: Her husband gets annoyed by her interest in technology. Via Politico’s Playbook:

His wife says her obsession with electronic gadgets and technology is one of his pet peeves.

So not only does Cindy have to help McCain send e-mails, but he resents the fact that she takes an interest in e-mail in the first place. Even in his own demographic — white, college-educated men over 65 — McCain is an outlier. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, approximately three-quarters of this group use the Internet. More on McCain’s disastrous tech policies here.

Well I guess that isn't as bad as calling her a "See you next Tuesday" or a trollop, but it does add a little more to that maverick persona he so loves to display. In the next two months as the pressure builds, don't be surprised to see more of it.

McCain Tried To Enter His Wife Into A Topless Beauty Contest (I'm Not Kidding)

I swear if I made this up I'd be writing for some sort of All In The Family spin off, but no, its true, McCain offered a crowd of bikers his wife in a topless beauty contest. Forget the implications of women going up on stage to strut their stuff for thousands of drunk men, this place is a festering sewer that regularly results in several 'incidents' per event. It is so bad that there is a crisis center set up across the street. This is the type of crowd McCain feels at ease with, so comfortable in fact, that he joked about his wife entering a topless/bottomless beauty contest.

From DailyKos:

CNN has the details.

If there were any Obama supporters to be found in the vast Buffalo Chip campground, they kept quiet.

Indeed, McCain felt so comfortable at the event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally’s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that’s been known to feature topless women.

"I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain said to cheers. "I told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."

Say whuh?

That's right.

Let's read more about this 'beauty pageant' from ESPN.

Buffalo Chip has a reputation for that sort of thing. It holds a Miss Buffalo Chip contest every night, which is essentially a topless beauty pageant. And occasionally bottomless, too. During a drenching rain Wednesday night, the contest broke up into smaller groups and one woman wound up dancing naked on a bar top. Her boyfriend/husband saw her and angrily dragged her away as she struggled to put her pants back on and muttered something about how, "It's only this one week a year."

I laughed when I heard the guys at Buffalo Chip tell the story, but then I thought about the conversation I had with Pearl Gulbranson, who was working at the Crisis Intervention Center for domestic abuse, which is located in a house across the street from the Broken Spoke. Gather 500,000 people in one spot, feed them a lot of alcohol and there are bound to be some serious problems.

"We average three or four 'contacts' a night," Gulbranson said. "And a lot of women get abandoned here. They get left behind with no way of getting home. So we're here to help."

Rape culture, objectification of women, domestic violence, and raw misogyny. This is what John McCain thinks his own wife is worth.

If that is what you call Presidential material, then our country is seriously f*cked. And if Cindy McCain just stood up there and smiled for that horrendously display of machismo, then shame on her for even thinking about trying to be some sort of role model for 51% of Americans.

Vanity Fair Backs Up New Yorker Mag

Since both magazines are owned by Conde Nast, the writers and illustrators for the publications know each other to at least some degree. When the furor erupted over the New Yorker's miserable attempt at satire, the staff of Vanity Fair was glad it was the folks downstairs taking the heat. Now a couple weeks later, they want to jump in the fray with this un-official cover of McCain over to my left. While it may not be the first counter to the Obama illustration, it definitely looks a lot better than Seattle P-I's.

Kudos to you Vanity Fair, for actually doing piece of satire on a piece of crap that was trying to be satirical. Oh, the irony of it all!

Bravo! Bravo!

McCain Tries To Erase His Infidelity From History

First of all, I do not believe one's personal life is subject to how they perform in office. Yet if a candidate tries to use or misrepresent their personal life to show character to the public, then that is a different story. John McCain has tried to paint a picture that he separated from his first wife before involving himself with current-wife Cindy, but the truth is far from what comes out of McCain's mouth.

From The LA Times:

In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.

"I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow," McCain wrote. "I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980."

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

The Times delves into the relationships McCain has had, with his first wife and what seems to be the impetus of the article, Nancy Reagan. Nancy scorned McCain when she learned the details of how he abandoned her friend Carol for Cindy. Even now, nearly thirty years later, her late and tepid endorsement of John shows the bad feelings that are still there.

Now I could personally care less about Nancy Reagan's endorsement, that is for Republicans to decipher. What concerns me most is that McCain smudged the facts (a.k.a. lied) in his memoir to give himself a somewhat better face in all of this. What he should do is admit his infidelity of the past and own up to it. Of course if he hadn't tried to base his candidacy on his imagined "character," he could have focused more on his legislative accomplishments....oh wait, there really aren't any to speak of (and don't get me started on campaign finance reform).

John McCain's Wife Not Saved From His Temper

Many people know that McCain has a history of being crabby. His temper isn't often heard on the campaign trail these days but here and there it can come out. Rest assured, his handlers must do a lot of work to keep it hammered down in the basement, but sometimes you just can't hide some pretty atrocious stuff. Now you never know what goes on between a husband and wife, but some behavior can be looked at and one might wonder, do we want a guy like that with his finger on the nuclear trigger?

From RawStory:

The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which will arrive in bookstores next month, reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife that happened in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop. An advance copy of the book was obtained by RAW STORY.

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain�s intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain�s hair and said, �You�re getting a little thin up there.� McCain�s face reddened, and he responded, �At least I don�t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.� McCain�s excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

The man who was known as "McNasty" in high school has erupted in foul-languaged tirades at political foes and congressional colleagues more-or-less throughout his career, and his quickness to anger has been an issue on the presidential campaign trail as evidence of his fury has surfaced.

Schecter goes on to explain that in 1992, reporters had no idea how to cover such an incident, so they simply didn't. Nowadays in the 24 hour news cycle things are much different and something like this would have been all over YouTube. Yet this got buried many years ago, except for the anonymous accounts by several who were there. His temper is well known, but now......we are learning to what extent that fire can reach.

Fool Me Once, Shame On You, Fooled By McCain Twice? Shame On Us

After the story broke about Vicki Iseman and her relationship with John McCain, the Senator from Arizona and his minions went into attack mode (and they're good at it too). That is, attack the messenger mode. All of them decried the New York Times and that John McCain is a maverick and man of integrity. Damn, even his "blogger" daughter turned out an 'aww, shucks' piece about dear old Dad. The man who is seen as a maverick by many however, has a past that shows he isn't immune from deviating from the character he pretends to be.

From The Albany Project:

It seems John McCain has had his own Rudy Giuliani moments in the past.

In 2000, Nicholas Kristof wrote a profile piece on McCain described how his marriage to present wife Cindy came to form:

It was 1979, and it was becoming clear that he would never make admiral like his father and grandfather. He had always dreamed of doing something great, of imprinting his name on the history books, but at age 42 he found himself with a stuttering military career and no base from which to go into politics.

On top of that, his personal life was a mess: Although he was still living with his wife, he was aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich.

And as this far-right website puts it:

While still married to Carol, McCain began an adulterous relationship with Cindy. He married Cindy in May 1980 -- just a month after dumping Carol and securing a divorce. The newlyweds honeymooned in Hawaii.

This is all true. John McCain divorced his first wife Carol in April 1980. Then, a month later in May 1980, he marries current wife Cindy.

Hmmm. Could a guilty man be capable of sinning again?