McCain’s Past Infidelities, Ongoing Sanctimony Haunt Him In Town Hall Meeting

Cliff Schecter — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:59:49 -0400

As you'll see in this video above, from a town hall meeting in Nashville, Tennessee Monday, mixed in with platitudes about gay marriage, we get a nice little comment from this questioner on the sanctity of marriage in McCain's life--or more to the point, sanctimony. Here is a rough transcript of her question to The Morally Righteous One, which comes at the beginning of the video (it includes McCain's answer to this question and a previous on on Hillary Clinton):

My second and final question, you talk a lot about the character issue...and...like you, um, I was opposed to gay marriage, I was in always in favor of civil unions but the basic definition of marriage....but, then I get to thinking, that is based on what we consider to be the sanctity of marriage. There is nothing....you see long-term couples splitting up, it's, it's just crazy...I know that you, your own situation, you're going to have to address that in the campaign. Infidelity is just a terrible cancer on this country....and I think if we're going to talk about...gay marriage, it has to be in the context of the preservation of marriage...which I just don't see it, I think we need to make it more difficult for people to get married, or whatever we need to do..if that's...if we're going to be consistent.

McCain ignored that part of the question, of course.

h/t Mike Rogers for providing the video

Update: From The Real McCain:

Arriving back in the United States in 1973, McCain faced not only his own lingering injuries but also those that his wife had sustained in an automobile accident in 1969. After nine months of intensive physical therapy, he was reinstated to flight status. While stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, he was instrumental in turning around the performance of a Corsair squadron.

His marriage did not recover so well. McCain has admitted to “selfishness and immaturity” and has attributed the breakup of his marriage to his own misdeeds. He has even gone out of his way to exempt Vietnam from any blame. “The blame was entirely mine,” he said.

McCain had already met and romanced, while still married to Shepp, the woman who would be his second wife — Cindy Lou Hensley, seventeen years his junior, the only child of a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix.10 Cindy’s father, Jim Hensley, had been a World War II pilot, shot down over the English Channel. In 1955 he formed his company, Hensley & Co., now the country’s sixth-largest beer distributorship. Cindy had gone from cheerleader to rodeo queen to graduate student at University of South Carolina by the time she met McCain in 1979. A year later, McCain and his first wife were granted a divorce; six weeks later, McCain married Cindy.

Update II: It just occurred to me, as this was in Tennessee, where the local GOP has been attacking Barack Obama's wife in ads, that perhaps someone might ask McCain to address whether he respected "the sanctity of marriage" enough to demand that his local party stop attacking his opponent's wife.

McCain's Murderers Row

Cliff Schecter — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:49:10 -0400

A new website (firethelobbyists.com) has been created by the pro-campaign finance reform organization Campaign Money Watch, to convince Senator McCain to fire three lobbyists in the top levels of his organization that have lobbied for ruthless dictators. You may recall that over the past two days, two McCain aides have resigned because of their willingness to do public relations work for the Burmese Junta.

Ahh, working for the public good. It must feel so refreshing.

Of course, turn over any stone in The McCain Campaign, and one can only guess what might come crawling out. It turns out that they have even more friends in low places. I contacted David Donnelly, Director of Campaign Money Watch, for a comment. He explained what his group is trying to accomplish:

John McCain ought to immediately fire three lobbyists — Charlie Black, Tom Loeffler, and Peter Madigan -- whose lobbying for brutal dictators and foreign governments is every bit as bad as the two lobbyists who left his campaign over the weekend. Frankly, McCain’s campaign is turning out to be an effort of, by, and for these types of Washington influence peddlers. His credentials as a reformer are gone.

Pretty strong words. Yet, if you read what this triad of McCain lobbyists have been up to, perhaps not strong enough. It ain't pretty:

Charlie Black, McCain’s senior counsel and spokesman, began his lobbying career by representing numerous dictators and repressive regimes

Black’s firm represented the governor of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos. According to a 1985 report, the firm Black, Manafort & Stone earned $950,000 plus expenses for its work to provide “advice and assistance on matters relating to the media, public relations and public affairs interests.”1

Black’s firm lobbied on behalf of Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire, earning $1 million a year for his efforts.2

Black’s firm lobbied on behalf of Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.3

Black’s firm represented Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Babangida, earning at least $1 million for his efforts.4

Black’s firm has represented Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich state “best known for the outlandish brutality of its rulers.”5

Black represented Angolan rebel and “classical terrorist” Jonas Savimbi, a job that earned him $600,000.6 “We have to call him Africa’s classical terrorist,” Makau Mutua, a professor of law and Africa specialist told the New York Times. “In the history of the continent, I think he’s unique because of the degree of suffering he caused without showing any remorse.”7

In recent years his client list has also included the Iraqi National Congress8, Friends of Blackwater9, and the China National Off-Shore Oil Corp.10

Since 2005, BKSH has received more than $700,000 in fees from foreign entities.11

Thomas Loeffler, co-chairman of McCain’s campaign, has represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia paid the Loeffler Group “a whopping $7.9 million from December 1, 2005, though November 2006 -- the largest fee collected from a foreign government by any lobbying firm in 2006,” according to National Journal.12 The Washington Times reported that “Mr. Loeffler's firm has received more than $10 million since 2006 from the Saudi Embassy and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”13 Much of this work was centered on gaining admission for the Kingdom to the World Trade Organization.14

Since 2005, according to the Washington Times, “the Loeffler Group reported more than $11 million in fees from foreign lobbying clients.”15

Peter Madigan, a leading McCain fundraiser, lobbies on behalf of the king of Dubai

Madigan has earned upwards of $800,000 to improve the United Arab Emirates’ reputation in the face of a class action lawsuit over the enslavement of boy camel jockeys.16

You may also remember a story we broke at Cliff Schecter's Campaign Silo at Firedoglake on Charlie Black the other day--via John Gorenfeld's new book Bad Moon Rising--regarding his involvement in setting up an anti-Christian ceremony for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a man who is not only a felon but in league with Kim Jong-Il of North Korea.

Pleasant company to be sure. And it is only the tip of the iceberg. In The Real McCain, I have two chapters outlining McCain's sordid associations with all manner of miscreants that make Jeremiah Wright look like a Red Cross worker.