More Skeletons In McCain's Closet Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been dogged by stories about his captivity in North Vietnam. Now the senator is accused of marital infidelity and sexual abuse. EXCLUSIVE TO THE SPOTLIGHT By Mike Blair As media favorite Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continues to gain ground in his drive for this year's GOP presidential nod, accusations of past marital infidelity and sexual abuse are emerging along with stories about his captivity during the Vietnam War. McCain recently admitted on national television that he was not faithful to his first wife, Carol. His critics tell stories about alleged "girlfriends" provided to him by the communists during his years as a POW in North Vietnam. These stories are all unproven but persistent. Articles culled from newspaper ar chives by The SPOTLIGHT include a May 15, 1995, UPI wire service report from Bangkok, Thailand. In the report, the Khmer Rouge, which was involved in a brutal civil war in neighboring Cam bodia with a Vietnamese-backed go vernment, stated that McCain "is Vietnamese. He has a Vietnamese wife and Vietnamese children. He is an Amer ican by nationality, but he is a Viet namese agent who is helping Viet nam to commit aggression and genocide against Cambodia." INTIMATE Also retrieved from the archives is an article from the Aug. 2, 1996, issue of The Wall Street Journal: "Sen. McCain's first story is an embarrassingly intimate one about his romantic yearnings for a young Vietnamese woman he watched through the wooden cracks of his prison floor . . . " The Khmer Rouge should be the last to accuse others of genocide, even the Vietnamese, who killed a million Cam bodians while in power prior to 1978. It is interesting to many of his critics that the Khmer Rouge claim McCain has "a Vietnamese wife and Vietnamese children." DISREGARDED Most critics immediately disregard the accusation, particularly the part about McCain having "a Vietnamese wife," as nonsense. However, at least two Vietnam-era veterans familiar with the culture of the Cambodians and other Southeast Asians point to the fact that the Khmer Rouge would respectfully use the term "wife," finding the use of the words "mistress" or "girlfriend" im polite and offensive. As for martial infidelities, McCain said his first wife whom he married in 1965, remained loyal to him throughout his North Vietnam imprisonment. While his wife was in a wheelchair as the result of a car accident in which her legs were crushed, McCain said he decided to divorce her. He later married his current wife, the former Cindy Hensley, daughter of an ultra-wealthy Phoenix beer distributor. Cindy McCain has a criminal record of drug addiction and theft of narcotic painkillers from a Third World charity organization that she headed. She was able to avoid prosecution. In a Vanity Fair article, McCain de scribed his break-up with his first wife this way: "I was responsible for it. The fact that it happened the way it happened . . . the fact that she had been loyal and faithful and wonderful all the years I was gone . . . Look, you can't find a much worse guy than me."

-- Ed (ed@lizzardranch.com), January 30, 2000

Answers

Bush is running SCARED! No matter what "trash" you can dig up on John McCain, he is still the BEST choice for president. The man is not, never has been, and never will be a "perfect" human being. Regardless of whether his first wife was incapacitated or not, the most loving thing you can do for someone if you do not want to be with them anymore, is LEAVE them. Though many times the one being left is hurt emotionally for a time, they do get over it and move on to find someone that "wants" to be with them. This country elected a draft dodger, rapist, womanizer, liar, adulterer, thief, etc., not once, but twice. You can question John McCain's integrity all you want, but when you look at the overall picture of how he has conducted himself in life, he is an honorable man well deserving of being elected to the highest office of the United States presidency. I proudly support his candidacy. He is more than capable of leading our great country into the new millennium.

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), January 30, 2000.

I don't know why everyone gets so worried about "who will be president"... Presidential elections have been rigged since the advent of the electoral college. Whoever is "supposed" to be in office WILL be in the office...

snarlin'...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.

Bush is running SCARED! No matter what "trash" you can dig up on John McCain, he is still the BEST choice for president.

(Really? Spoken like a true democrat. If the 'trash' is even remotely true, McCain is not fit to be president.)

The man is not, never has been, and never will be a "perfect" human being.

(No one accused him of being perfect, thus your 'defense' falls flat.)

Regardless of whether his first wife was incapacitated or not, the most loving thing you can do for someone if you do not want to be with them anymore, is LEAVE them.

(LOL LOL LOL So you describe his action of abandonning his wife, whom he took a VOW to remain with till death do they part, ...."LOVING" Vern, not only is it NOT "loving", it is the very opposite of love. Here we have a woman who remained faithfull for years on end and then.....she is injured and McCain DUMPS her. McCain is lower than whaleshit on the ocean floor. " Honey, I know that you have been seriously injured in a car accident and that you waited for me for years and years and years while I was imprisoned . Just to show you how 'loving' I am...I am leaving you now that you are incapacitated because I just don't want to be with you anymore even though I promised BEFORE GOD to remain with you until death." )

Though many times the one being left is hurt emotionally for a time, they do get over it and move on to find someone that "wants" to be with them. This country elected a draft dodger, rapist, womanizer, liar, adulterer, thief, etc., not once, but twice.

(And if McCain gets elected we will have a man who violated a vow before God to remain with his wife. If he can not keep that simple promise, I don't trust him as far as i can throw him. Perhaps the wedding vows before GOD ought to be changed from 'until death do us part' to 'until we don't want to anymore'. )

You can question John McCain's integrity all you want, but when you look at the overall picture of how he has conducted himself in life, he is an honorable man well deserving of being elected to the highest office of the United States presidency.

( LOL LOL Gee... if you overlook that he dumps his wife when she gets hurt, then he is a wonderful guy! Great defense. He isn't fit to carry out my garbage.)

I proudly support his candidacy. He is more than capable of leading our great country into the new millennium.

( He is a garbage slimeball who violates his promise to his wife after she waits in terror for him for years on end. Then, when she gets hurt, he dumps her. All hail the mighty candidate for President! America is a moral sewer lowered to the point where a man that dumps his injured wife is thought to be fit for the presidency.)

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), January 30, 2000.

Paul Milne

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 30, 2000.

Does the Manchurian Candidate ring any bells?

-- me (me@you.com), January 30, 2000.

Dog,

I definitely agree. The Fix is in, and "They" also got us running around like scared rabbits. Each of us should look in the mirror and admit that we really don't know what is going on or what the truth is. The media keeps feeding us stories, and based on our personal perspective, we believe the stuff that fits our reality. Admit. Go look in the mirror.

Y2K!! Was that fed to us?? And still some believe it is coming. Just one more refinery explosion.

The commies are coming!! That one has haunted me since I was a kid. Just duck and dive they taught in school. Then the Wall falls, and the commie scare is replaced by Iraq. Didn't "They" claim Iraq as the third largest military power. What a joke, they couldn't even whip Iran. But we deplete the arsenal, which is good for some businesses. More scare, and more of our money spent.

After Iraq, "They" peddle North Korea, that's their ace in the hole. Perfect, another frothing commie dictatorship with nuclear capability. So let's spend more tax dollars on Star Wars. Wee, what's a trillion dollars to the stupid tax payers. If North Korea falls, look out, we'll be back to Grenada as the lurking insidious threat.

JFK, MLK, S&L, Wall Street, Mena, Contra (Freedom Fighters?), HAARP, MK-ULTRA, NSA, Pinochet, Yellow Peril, Red Scare, Arab Terroists, anything but white. Run those rabbits. Oklahoma City, blame the militias. Flight 800, oops missile overshoot, blame the Arabs. What's the Truth. Who knows? They KNOW!

My question: who do you think "They" be???

-- phoneman (bcrefrig@excelonline.com), January 30, 2000.

Yes it does me, just like Clinton's "missing time" in Russia and other Eastern Block countries...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 30, 2000.

Paul yeah LOL ha! ha! ha! and all the rest of the guys running for prez. are so much better than McCain.

Listen dude your on the verge of letting your mouth overload your ass!

Again...

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), January 30, 2000.

My money goes with The Dog. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the next president is...." The next president was "picked" and in place" some time ago. It's just that the public isn't told until after the "election."

This business about McCain has been floating for years. Also there was an old report that McCain wasn't returned on the same plane along with other POW's for fear the plane's door would accidently open and McCain might fall out if his comrades got him alone for what it did while they were all being held. Fact? Fiction? Don't ask me but it's an old, old story. Cindy McCain's story is fact she was a junkie, first class.

-- Richard (Astral-Acres@webtv.net), January 30, 2000.

John McCain's Skeleton Closet

http://www.realchange.org/mccain.htm

John McCain is a maverick senator and former Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war for 5 years in North Vietnam. On the positive side, he is a rare exception to the partisan bitterness in Washington these days, often crafting bipartisan approaches to issues such as smoking and campaign reform.

Here are some negative allegations:

- McCain was one of the "Keating Five," congressmen investigated on ethics charges for strenuously helping convicted racketeer Charles Keating after he gave them large campaign contributions and vacation trips.

Charles Keating was convicted of racketeering and fraud in both state and federal court after his Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $3.4 billion. His convictions were overturned on technicalities; for example, the federal conviction was overturned because jurors had heard about his state conviction, and his state charges because Judge Lance Ito (yes, that judge) screwed up jury instructions. Neither court cleared him, and he faces new trials in both courts.)

Though he was not convicted of anything, McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating after Keating gave McCain at least $112,00 in contributions. In the mid- 1980s, McCain made at least 9 trips on Keating's airplanes, and 3 of those were to Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain's wife and father-in-law also were the largest investors (at $350,000) in a Keating shopping center; the Phoenix New Times called it a "sweetheart deal."

- Mafia ties: In 1995, McCain sent birthday regards, and regrets for not attending, to Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonano, the head of the New York Bonano crime family, who had retired to Arizona. Another politician to send regrets was Governor Fife Symington, who has since been kicked out of office and convicted of 7 felonies relating to fraud and extortion.

- At least one veteran's group (U.S. Veteran's Dispatch) really hates him, and accuses McCain of cooperating with the North Vietnamese while he was their prisoner. They also sketch McCain's ties, through his wealthy father-in-law, to various Arizona scandals including the murder of reporter Don Bolles. Check out their version at the US Veteran's Dispatch web site.

- Family troubles: McCain has a reputation as a politician who has difficulty keeping his pants zipped, according to Republican sources. He acknowledges that his adultery broke up his first marriage. His second wife Cindy, the daughter of a wealthy Budweiser beer distributor, was addicted to prescription narcotics and even stole hard drugs from a medical charity that she ran. McCain acknowledges that she didn't want him to run, and only agreed once he promised that she doesn't have to go to New Hampshire or Iowa.

Quotes: - "Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father." -- John McCain - "He took his role as father very seriously. But when we finished chores, we'd go to the beach and swim. He'd pretend he was Banana Man and throw me into the waves. We had bodysurfing contests." -- McCain's daughter Sidney. Banana man? - Leonardo DiCaprio is "an androgynous wimp." -- McCain.

Sources:

"The Pampered Politician", by Amy Silverman, The Phoenix New Times, May 15, 1997 "See John Run Off at the Mouth", Phoenix New Times, October 1, 1998

"Opiate for the Mrs.", Phoenix New Times, September 8, 1994

"Flashes: What's Up, Murdoch?", Phoenix New Times, September 17, 1998

the US Veteran's Dispatch web site.

"Symington Gets Slammer", Phoenix New Times, February 2, 1998

Election 98: Arizona Governor, Fox News web site

"Keating Gets New Trial", CNNfn Web Site, December 2, 1996

"No More Wagging,", (editorial) by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, January 3, 1999

"John McCain, rock-and-roll dad", by Andrew Essex, The New Yorker Magazine, December 6, 1999 p52

Paid for by Real People For Real Change and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Copyright 2000 Real People For Real Change

-- Jay (jaybird@song.net), January 30, 2000.

Oh, yeah. That dope smoking crack head, Bush, is running scared, allright.

-- Uhhmmm... (JFCP81A@aol.com), January 30, 2000.

He sounds like a really nice guy, all right. Like Newt Gingrich who told his wife he was leaving her when she was in the hospital with breast cancer. Not only was she sick, but she didn't have any money... But tell me they're not all swine. I'd like to believe it.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 30, 2000.

Quoting "The Spotlight?"

This is a newspaper that essentially believes that the wrong side won in World War II, and that gas chambers were a hoax.

This isn't a "liberal/conservative" issue, or Demican/Republicrat.

Neo-nazi newspapers aren't necessarily the most credible sources for anything.

(I voted for Ralph Nader for President in 1996.)

see www.pir.org for interesting references on the ultra right

-- diversity (tolerance@rare.here), January 30, 2000.

What does one have to do when in a Prisoner Of War camp to earn the right of "conjugal visits"? It must have been something that REALLY pleased the NVA and their Soviet and Chinese bosses, 'cause I know a guy they CASTRATED because he wouldn't tell them something *minor* they demanded during interrogation.

It's becoming clear to me that John McCain is more compromised to hostile foreign powers than even Klintoon. Klintoon wasn't in the military. He had not sworn an oath to resist his captors or to accept no special favor from captors.

John McCain did and he then turned his back on that oath. How would he say he wouldn't turn his back on an oath of office as President? How much pressure from someone with the goods on him could he stand?

And could he say "NO" to blackmail involving photos of he and a Vietnamese cutie, let us say, "involved with each other" during one of those rewards? Do not doubt that if the stories of McCain being rewarded for talking are true, that the NVA didn't film every moment of what went on. You never know when a photo will come in handy.

Wanna bet that someone in the Kremlin has go some intersting photos of Klintoon taken during his visit, and that he knows they have them?

Can you say "COMPROMISED". boys and girls? We don't need that again.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 30, 2000.

Jezz, The Repubplutocrats sure dredged up some scum for next years run. I thought after Clinton it couldn't get worse,but it just may! VOTE REFORM and send both wings of the sellout parties packing.

-- money can buy anything (scumrises@to the top.com), January 30, 2000.

This is distasteful. The guy doesn't really stand a chance for winning the presidential race; why support the corporate media by peddling this? Although their are rumors about his captivity, the bottom line is McCain lived through a kind of Hell in his efforts to protect what we were told were national interests in Nam, a kind of Hell Clinton never had the balls to face!

I think peddling this story is disrespectful to all men and women who have fought and continue to fight with honor to protect and defend the constitution.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.

McCain said on NBCs Meet the Press that if he gets the chance to debate Gore, hed chastise the vice president for his campaign finance practices. Gore, Bush and most of the other presidential hopefuls, he said, would do little if anything to break up what he called the incumbency protection racket. "I can beat Al Gore like a drum, McCain said, because he and President Bill Clinton debased the institutions of government with practices like allowing big donors to use the Lincoln bedroom in the White House. The Bush campaign, he said, is working to funnel tens of millions of dollars into soft money that allows politicians to get around fund-raising restrictions.

McCain also defended his tax-cut proposal, acknowledging its not as big as some others but arguing that voters realize the need to pay down the debt and to protect Social Security and Medicare. McCain said that what some call tax increases in his plan are actually revenue closers that would eliminate loopholes allowing wealthy Americans to get big tax write-offs.

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), January 30, 2000.

First and foremost...am sadly feeling I agree with the Dog on the 'outcome'.

That aside,...anyone who still believes that a candidate's personal life has no bearing on his professional duties and professional integrity is hopelessly naive.

Whatever stories are floating about McCain should be brought into the light of day. Prove or disprove them. What is known is bad enough for me. It reminds me of why I NEVER liked Newt Gingrich. Anyone can fall and fail...we are human...but to leave your wife because her legs were crushed? Paul was too kind to such a bucket of self- centered offal. I don't care what crowd pleasing platitudes McCain is mouthing... actions speak louder than words. What makes anyone believe that a man who has no honor in such a sacred matter would put the interests of his country above his own? After all, we are faceless strangers to him. A candidate who will callously cheat on a spouse or behave in ways that show lack of discipline, self-control, and integrity will surely sell out his country. If personal happiness (and/or gain) is the god on their throne, then anything will be sacrificed for it. Don't think for a minute that you won't be part of such a sacrifice. Count on it.

-- Mumsie (shezdremn@aol.com), January 31, 2000.

I just want to make plain that I don't know much about McCain in Viet Nam, nor any other part of his life or campaign and I don't care. What is most important is character. Any man that promises before GOD to remain with his wife and then leaves her after she is injured in an accident after she waited for him for countless years while he was held prisoner is a scumbag. It would be one thing if the decision was absolutely mutual, but it was not.

A man makes the most important promise of his life, before God Almighty, and then....backs out. I am sure there are plenty of decent men who have NOT sacked the wives of their youth that would do just fine as President.

Now, given the choice betwenn Gore and McCain, I would most assuredly vote for McCain. I am NOT a republican. But , a convicted felon, falling down drunk would be far more palatable than any democrat child killing murdering sonofabitch.

And the local dog catcher, faithful to his wife, would be better than McCain.

Paul Milne

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 31, 2000.