McCain Tabloid Watch: Cindy McCain drug scandal edition

By Kathy G.

At long last, we have a winn-ah!

Longtime readers of this blog may remember that, since this blog was inaugurated back in March, I've had a continuing feature called McCain Tabloid Watch, monitoring what the trashy supermarket tabloids have been reporting about John McCain.

I assumed that I'd have quite a bit of work on my hands, because where McCain is concerned, there is no scarcity of dirt. Just for starters: there are the circumstances under which McCain dumped his loyal first wife for the younger, thinner, blonder, and, not incidentally, mammothly richer, Cindy; McCain's vicious temper; his reputed physical abuse of Cindy; the rumors that he's dying of cancer; his gambling habit; his reputation as a womanizer;  Cindy's alleged affairs, including one supposedly ongoing fling with her yoga instructor; her ungenerous and, frankly, downright cruel treatment of her two half-sisters, both of whom she refuses to acknowledge; her father's criminal record and the dubious source of the Hensley millions (for the deets, see this excellent article, which, let us just say, provides ample support Balzac's famous dictum that "Behind every fortune lies a crime").

And oh, not to mention that whole Keating business. Plus the sordid saga of Cindy's drug addiction, which is, at last, is making headlines in the tabs -- it's this week's cover story in The Globe.

Now, even the most impartial of observers might be justified in suspecting that the McCains are far from lacking in sleaze. And even assuming that a fair number of the above-named stories may be baseless, said observer might even be forgiven be believing that there's enough there there to keep the tabloids in business for years.

Except -- here's the remarkable thing about the tabloids and McCain: it's the dog that didn't bark. As I've previously noted, I've been following the tabloid stuff on McCain for six solid months now, and before this week, the only things they've run on McCain have been an admittedly juicy story about his alleged affair with Connie Stevens, and the story Cliff Schecter reported in his McCain bio, about how St. John of the Barbecue called his wife a cunt to her face, and in the presence of several reporters. (And oh, I should also add, there was a short, silly story in one of the tabs after the Palin pick, in which "experts" were quoted as saying that Cindy McCain's body language reveals her hatred and jealousy of Palin. It was such piffle that I skipped it).   

The contrast of the tabs' treatment of McCain and Obama is especially stark. Barely a week goes by without some screaming headline about Barack -- this in spite of the fact that his personal and professional lives appear to be relatively scandal-free (the Rezko, Wright, and Ayers connections are, after all, pretty small beer, and the other Obama tales the tabs have been peddling are on the level of "He's a secret Muslim! Run for your lives!" ridiculousness). I mean, I know Barack is young and handsome and sexy and charismatic and all, and McCain is one gnarly, repellent old dude, but let's get real. There's been a huge double standard here, and the only way I can explain it is political bias.

But McCain's political fortunes have taken quite a tumble of late, and I think the tabs must be smelling the blood in the water. Because, finally, this week, they're going after him for the Cindy McCain drug scandal, bigtime. Here's how The Globe shills for its story on its website:

IN a blockbuster world exclusive, GLOBE rips the lid off a shocking scandal that could shatter John McCain's White House ambitions! The Republican candidate stands accused of lying about his wife Cindy's drug use and using his political muscle keep her out of jail. Read all about how Cindy scammed docs to write her phony prescriptions for painkillers, the couple's loveless marriage and much more in this riveting expose!

Let's get one thing straight here: idea that this story is any kind of exclusive -- let alone a "world" exclusive -- is pretty freaking hilarious. This contours of the story have been well-known for years -- they were, for example, reported in this excellent 1999 piece in Salon. And several weeks ago, the story got a fresh round of publicity emerged the whistleblower in the case, Cindy's former employee, Tom Gosinski, finally decided to go public with new details about this lurid melodrama.

But here's the thing: I would be very surprised if even half the general public had any idea that Cindy McCain had, for years, been a serious drug addict; that she pressured doctors into writing prescriptions for her using other people's names; that she stole drugs from her own charity; that if she weren't the wealthy wife of a U.S. senator that she may well have gone to jail for her crimes; that her husband enabled her lawbreaking, and then orchestrated a cover-up that may well have amounted to obstruction of justice; and that people's lives and careers were ruined as a result of the McCains' appalling behavior in this matter (at least one doctor lost his medical license, and McCain pressured a political ally to cook up a bogus extortion investigation of Gosinski, and also blackballed Gosinski from ever working in politics again).

Make no mistake: this whole story raises very serious questions corruption, abuse of power, and possible obstruction of justice. Among other things: did the McCains lie to D.E.A. investigators? Did McCain or his staff tamper with the D.E.A. investigation of Cindy? Did McCain arrange to have Cindy given a diplomatic passport -- highly unusual, even for a senator's wife -- specifically so she could avoid having her bags searched on overseas trips, which such a passport enabled her to do?

Okay, those are some of the more high-minded legal/ethical issues involved here. But what I also like about this story is just the sheer, tawdry gossip quotient. For example, the Globe story references the following:

-- That Cindy was consuming up to 50 pills a day;

-- That Cindy had, at least once, OD'd, passed out, and had to be rushed to the hospital, and that, rather than get her help, her husband merely had the incident hushed up;

-- That John "was fond of cracking cruel dumb blonde jokes and putdowns at Cindy's expense;"

-- That "The McCains had a loveless marriage of convenience -- that drove heartbroken Cindy to drugs;"

-- That family members expressed concern to Gosinski that Cindy was drugging her own children with prescription sedatives.

Yeah, that bit about Cindy drugging her own kids always did knock me for a loop.

Plus, the article is chockful of dramatic and highly unflattering quotes, many of them from Gosinski. There's this, for example, from a contemporaneous diary he wrote during the time of these events (1992):

During my short tenure at AVMT, I have been surrounded by what on the surface appears to be the ultimate All American family. In reality, I am working for a very sad, lonely woman whose marriage of convenience to a US Senator has driven her to: distance herself from friends; cover feelings of despair with drugs; and replace lonely moments with self-indulgences.

I have always wondered why John McCain has done nothing to fix the problem. He must either not see that a problem exists or ... not choose to do anything about it. It would seem that it would be in everyone's best interest to come to terms with the situation. And do whatever is necessary to fix it. There is so much at risk: The welfare of the children; John's political career; the integrity of Hensley & Company [Cindy's parents' business]; the welfare of Jim and Smitty Hensley [Cindy's parents]; and the health and happiness of Cindy McCain.

And this, also from Gosinski's diary:

I have never been so aware of the amount of insincerity behind a political campaign as I am now with John McCain's reelection campaign. Everything Cindy McCain does is politically motivated and driven by the almighty "photo op." I am convinced that Cindy McCain could give a rat's ass about the citizens of the third world countries or the victims of natural disasters.

And as a kicker, the article ends this way:

And shockingly, Gosinski isn't convinced that Cindy has beaten her demons. In a recent interview, he was asked if her behavior on the campaign trail this year resembles how she acted in 1992.

"I'm probably looking too closely," he replied, "but I would say, 'Yes.'"

All in all, quite damning. What especially tickled me about this article is its shout-out at the beginning to none other than the netroots' own Matt Stoller. But rather than being described as one of us dirty effin'  hippie left-wing blogger types, Matt is ID'd as "Harvard-educated political consultant Matt Stoller." They quote him as saying, "The basics of the story are clear -- John McCain used his political position as a senator to help his wife illegally abuse drugs and avoid any drug charges despite ample evidence. . . It's clearly a massive case of corruption on a personal level and an abuse of power."

Well, huzzah and kudos to Matt. He's done yeoman's work in publicizing this story and helping it finally gain some traction.

I will also give the article bonus points for the accompanying photos, in all of which Cindy looks particularly miserable (and, I've gotta say, not especially healthy, either).

All in all, though, using my patented Bat Boy rating system (explained here) -- how do I rank this story?

Overall, I'd have to say this story merits

 

out of

                     Why? Well, this is pretty high-quality stuff. You've got some very serious legal and abuse of power issues, for one. But what makes it a great tabloid story is the sordidness of it all: the drugs, and the very intimate, and ugly story it paints of the McCains' marriage, and in particular of the character of John McCain. And unlike a fair number of tabloid stories, it clearly is not made-up bullshit. You've got some highly credible, on-the-record sources here, including someone who had a ringside seat for this whole mess, and kept a contemporaneous written record of what was going on, to boot.

The downside of this story? It's nothing we didn't know before. Some of the details were reported around the time the story first broke, and others have emerged fairly recently -- in the past few weeks. But pretty much nothing is new here, which is why I'm kicking the rating down a notch.

What's useful about it, though, is that this story is still relatively little known among the generally public. So the tacky, screaming headlines here give the story a much-needed, and well-deserved, boost.

So, overall, good job, Globe! I hope there's more where this came from.

(Previous editions of the McCain Tabloid Watch can be found here, here, and here.)

Comments

[Tom S]

And Kathy, check out last week's National Enquirer story about the messed up family dynamics in the Palin household. Drugs, sex, family feuds (Bristol thrown out of the house when she got pregnant, now welcomed back as political prop). Great stuff. I couldn't put it down. Ordinarily, I'm for keeping candidate's kids off limits, but in this case, the candidate broke the shield of privacy.