My wife mentioned over supper yesterday that Cindy McCain, second wife of GOP Presidential candidate Senator John McCain, is a drug addict. I looked up from my chips, wondering if DailyKos had replaced Prairie Roots at my dinner table. Nope: same sensible lady I woke up with.
Cindy McCain herself openly admitted her addiction to Percocet and Vicodin in the Arizona press in 1994. The public confession came in an effort to get out in front of potential bad press from a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation looking into whether Mrs. McCain had defrauded her own medical charity to obtain bogus prescriptions—basically, she was stealing drugs to feed her addiction.
Now my wife isn't into the politics of personal destruction. She leans toward the position of Harold Pollack, who writes in the Huffington Post that we ought not trash Cindy McCain for falling victim to an all-too-common medical problem.
What does distinguish the story of Mrs. McCain's addiction is her ability to escape legal consequences. Mrs. McCain paid financial restitution and got treatment, but she never served time, and her husband's lawyers initially got a deal with the DEA to keep the whole matter secret. How many of us commoners would receive such gentle treatment from the law for theft and drug abuse?
Ponder this double standard: Michelle Obama says a few words about her newfound pride in her country (McCain himself would say one's feelings about one's country can change), and attacks fly that we can't trust her or her husband in the White House. Cindy McCain actually breaks the law, violates the trust of her family and her charity, and her wealth and her husband's power win her special deal from the government to protect her reputation as a pillar of the community.
I generally take a personal responsibility line on drug addiction, but I can dig up some sympathy for drug addicts as victims of a medical condition who need help. I have a little harder time finding sympathy for folks who use their wealth and power to escape the punishment regular folks would face.
If you think the country's court systems are fair, look no further than today's Sunday Argus in which a 42-year old registered sex offender, David Lee Thompson of Sioux Falls, plead guilty to stalking a child younger than age 12, plea bargained down from having sex with a child younger than age 10. Here's a guy that is a terror to our children, yet he only received two years probation and a suspended two year sentence. He's out among us again. His first conviction was when he was 24 in Florida with a 15-year old girl.
ReplyDeleteIf Mrs. McCain paid restitution yet served no time for her prescription drug problem 14 years ago, I'd much rather see her on the streets than David Thompson. Hold on to your children's hand and don't worry about Mrs. McCain. Keep your eyes peeled for David Thompson. What a travesty of justice to let this pervert out where he can offend again.
Cindy is a proud American but a forgetful bookkeeper. Per Wikipedia: In 1989, Cindy McCain became addicted to opioid painkillers such as Percocet and Vicodin, which she initially took to alleviate pain following two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs and to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five scandal, which involved her as a bookkeeper who had difficulty finding receipts.
ReplyDeleteShe admitted her addiction, did community service, made restitution, closed her charity.
ReplyDeleteHow about Bobby Kennedy Jr, whom I assume is one of your heroes as is his uncle Teddy? Jr in 1983 was arrested in a Rapid City airport for heroin possession after being found unconscious in an airplane bathroom with a needle stuck into his arm, after which search of his carry-on bag uncovered 183 milligrams of heroin. He pled guilty, was sentenced to two years probation, periodic tests for drug use, joined Narcotics Anonymous, and did community service. And we know how Ted Kennedy got off with allowing a girl to die.
And Hillary has managed to skate by after "losing" and "finding" documents that had been missing.
And that Louisiana senator who had ookoods of "cold cash" in his freezer during Katrina.
And Bill Clinton lied under oath and nothing happened to him.
I think there are many cases of worse things than abuse of painkillers. And I think that the above are worse examples of using influence to escape punishment.
I'm more concerned about the prices of energy, food, and health care, and about the prospect of waking up some morning to hear that Manhattan is a smoldering ruin, than I am about the character defects of the Presidential candidates' wives.
ReplyDeleteAs am I, Stan. But given that some GOP boosters have chosen to make Michelle Obama's character an issue, a reminder to them to look in the mirror seems worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteAnd midnight Anon, you assume too much. I've never offered plaudits for the politicians you use to distract from the issue. I've never issued any defense of the actions from which you attempt to craft an argument. I agree that using influence to escape punishment is wrong.
I suspect (though I am open to correction) that midnight Anon would cite any of the above instances as reason that any of the individuals involved in the above instances of avoiding legal punishment are less fit to serve as President than more law-abiding citizens. Midnight Anon, will you take that position in a straight-up comparison of McCain and Obama?
"did community service" -- I didn't catch that part in my reading yesterday. Can you point me toward a source?
Another question: how can we take any law-and-order talk from Senator McCain seriously when he himself has harbored a criminal?
Didn't Barack Obama smoke pot and snort coke long ago? Or did I hear a wrong story?
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