Among other journalistic crimes in his softball interview on This Week, John McCain was allowed by George Stephanopoulos to waffle unchallenged on the question of tax cuts. McCain now fully embraces the cuts that he once said "offended his conscience."
But the question of how much McCain has personally benefited from those tax cuts gets more pointed as Cindy McCain refused this week to release her tax returns. CNN in the video above had no problem creating a graph of the personal wealth of candidates that left out Cindy McCain’s assets, but included those of Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton. Just a wee bit misleading.
Back in 2004, this was Matthew Connetti in The Weekly Standard railing for transparency and the release of Teresa Heinz-Kerry’s tax returns:
One Republican lawyer says Heinz’s returns would be a "treasure trove of opposition research." One thing the returns would show, this lawyer says, is the extent to which Kerry is a "kept man."
[]
Making Heinz’s tax returns public would confirm that she’s Kerry’s sugar daddy (sugar mommy?). It would also strike a blow against Kerry’s populist rhetoric by detailing the lavish lifestyle he and his wife enjoy: the vacation home in Nantucket, the ski chalet in Ketchum, Idaho, the estate outside Pittsburgh, the Georgetown manse. Not to mention the red-and-white Gulfstream jet. And the tax returns could embarrass the Kerry campaign further if it’s revealed that Heinz has contributed to independent organizations working to unseat President Bush.
The McCain campaign cites the decision of Theresa Heinz-Kerry as a precedent for not releasing Cindy McCain’s returns. But As Media Matters notes, there’s a big difference:
These media reports, therefore, have advanced the McCain campaign’s comparison between Cindy McCain’s limited release of financial information and Heinz Kerry’s, and in doing so, ignored a key distinction in the information they released: Unlike Heinz Kerry, Cindy McCain did not release sufficient information for the public to determine the extent to which she benefited from the tax cuts her husband supports extending.
Stephanopoulos never asked if John McCain’s flip-flop on tax cuts has benefited Sugar Momma Cindy, or how we would know.
Enquiring minds want to know, even if the Beltway bores don’t.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
I didn’t agree that Kerry’s wife needed to release her returns-so I don’t have a different standard for goops.
McCain should be kept…out of the Oval Office.
call in the spend doctors
I need a sugar daddy so I can do some Jackie O shopping.
Morning Jane!
I don’t ever hear it mentioned that McCain may live in a mansion.
Seems that kind of language is reserved for Democrats.
-G
Marrying for money is studly stuff if you’re a Republican.
I am not sure how much is gained by full disclosure, but some is certainly in order. John McCain does not live in one house which he pays for and his wife another. Their finances are commingled. As someone running for the highest office in the land, we have a right to know something about those commingled finances.
I think Jane’s criticism of George Stephanopoulos is somewhat misplaced though. He didn’t ask McCain how much his family benefited from tax cuts because Stephano doesn’t want anyone asking him how much he benefited from them either. Just another example of millionaires looking out for millionaires.
Bet there are more sugar mommas than sugar daddys just isn’t talked about much. Trollop Cindy doesn’t have to show her lute but by not showing it she reveals Michelle Obama’s open honesty. Trollop Cindy must have a lot of skeletons to hid or she would gladly shed sunshine on her tax return.
Not doing something can make more of a statement about the person (in this case, persons) than honest telling. What are the McCain’s hiding?
OT: People are starting to take notice of Hillary’s nuclear-umbrella idea, and to question her sanity: http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..954/499420
Well if a candidat refuses to release any document- it always provides an issue for the opponent- so I guess it’s fair to bring it up- but it’s no biggy for me. Both McBush and Kerry’s wives are sittin on major league piles of cash.
We got a lot of catsup jokes in the last election- guess this year it will be about Budweiser.
Let’s ask McCains first abandoned wife all about it. Or perhaps his lobbyist girlfriend could release her financial records as a sort of substitution for his wife. Let’s ask for an unbiased medical review and what medications he is likely to be taking while mavericking around the red phone.
The way the media is not performing around all things McCain, we might want to have his BBQ sauce analyzed for Valium.
McSame is older Budweiser
Not sure I agree. Rather than knowing how much money they have, I’d be much more interested in knowing where money was invested and to what degree that constituted a conflict of interest.
Also – can’t assume that a couple’s money/assests are “intermingled”.
Anheiser is just another Bush.
Argh!
Would we get all that from the tax return? Guess it depends on how much of it is released.
So is Cindy still in the strip-mall business with Keating’s old company?
Does Cindy benefit as a stockholder from any of the prior or upcoming Wall Street bailouts?
How many mansions does Cindy own?
Is the barbecue “cabin” John Sidney’s or Cindy’s?
How many defense contractors is Cindy invested in?
If John Sidney’s tax returns show all of the couple’s charitable donations, what’s that percentage against both of their incomes?
What’s John Sidney’s monthly allowance?
Probably not.
Now if we can get Bush to head for the mountains.
-G
(((((((Jane!)))))))
Solid Blues Advice for Johnny McSame:
Be Careful with a Fool – Johnny Winter
I also question her assumptions, since she proceeds from the already-disproven notion that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
WaPo has a pretty good piece up about McBush’s “temperment” and quotes some gooper senators as saying that it should preclude him from being president…
Wonder why none of these goopers are on the morning talk shows?
This is a distinction without a difference. If McCain lives in a house or houses that the couple owns he is receiving benefit from the fortune that purchased them. We do have a right to know about these things. And I in no way intended to imply that it was out of bounds to know how and where their money was invested.
Hope it gets some traction. This is my great concern about Hillary. She is terribly insecure in deciding for herself and stepping out of the NeoCon sphere. She really believes in them and follows like a puppy dog. Here is an excerpt from DailyKos.
“Who the HELL is she talking to ? Whose IDEAS are these”, Lowe asked me, rhetorically, “Clark didn’t seem to know anything about this, he was blindsided. So where did these crazy, dangerous ideas come from ? Look, I’ve been in this business for fifty years, I know nuclear deterrence. She had to have been talking to somebody like Doug Coe or his elite inner circle.”
It was conjecture, and George Lowe would be the first to admit that, but he would also stick to his call pegging Clinton’s “nuclear umbrella” as a fast track to global nuclear war. Nuclear weapons can’t be used as “umbrellas”. That’s nuts, an idea one would have expected from SAC head General Curtis LeMay, parodied in Dr.Strangelove. Today, one would expect it from a neocon.. if she talks like a NeoCon, if she cavorts with NeoCon, if she makes the same sort of mistakes “NeoCon”.
I broke my vow to never watch ABC again! Dammit. Couldn’t wait for the transcript (do they even have trascripts on ABC news?) So downloaded the podcast. Well, I did note down a few sponsors I can contact to tell them I won’t buy their stuff no more.
I wouldn’t call the interview a total softball. It started out semi-pro hardball for a basement team. The second half was nerfball. It might not be fair to compare the tone of a one on one interview setting to a debate.
But it was a bad interveiw. And setting aside the tone, the treatment was unbalanced. Check out the list of questions from the debate on DailyKos and count the number of wright questions, and compare to the Hagee question.
On other hand, a bright point I took from the interview is that McCain is on our side. He cannot react well even to nerfballs.
I don’t mean to sound, uh, elitsit, but I have to wonder about the basic competence of these dudes and dudettes on TV. Do they not have research staff? Can they not formulate a pointed questions on crucial and basic problems and issues? Why do these talking heads base their questions on doubtful or just plain wrong premises? Why can they not follow up intellegently (they follow up meanly for Democrats, but not intelligently).
Snuffy made the point (legitimately) that McCrazy has been in the public health-care system his entire life (birth to present day) either via the Navy or the Senate (and as a military retiree and former POW he’s still entitled to VA care), McCrazy’s comeback was there was a period of four or five years he got “government sponsored care that was not so good”, so he got to toss in his POW creds (unchallenged) and Snuffy missed the opportunity to point out that his care in Hanoi was a non-sequitur in the US Health Care debate. McHealthCare is not a plan, it’s just another bad idea to make the rich richer, and the rest of us bankrupt and/or unable to seek adequate care.
Entirely missing to date, and I do hope it’s coming soon, is McVain’s treatment of his first wife. She was a model Navy POW spouse (well as far as anyone could be) I understand, and McCrazy dumped her like dirty laundry when he met the Cindy Lou Hensley and her millions. Not to mention her daddy’s political connections in AZ.
Oh, and where was McCrazy’s deploring of Women’s clinc bombings and doctor shootings by unrepentant terrorists embraced by the reich wing? William Ayers meet Eric Rudolph…
something i asked glenn greenwald yesterday, but too late to get answered, you-all might be able to help me answer…
modified from my question yesterday:
…….
from glenn @ 94:
and from glenn @ 202:
i don’t think these kind of attacks are something i should “rise above”… but i confess to the squeamishness glenn mentions (and warn against). so much of their mode of attack is based on gender roles i want no part in perpetuating – the trick for me is how to attack both the individual and the underlying premises re gender roles at the same time.
………..
any suggestions? because the idea that there is something wrong with a man’s money coming from a woman (whether it’s kerry or mcsame) while there’s nothing wrong with a woman’s money coming from a man…. well, that’s something i want to challenge too.
If any of the media cared, they could ask what investments Cyn has that would represent a potential conflict of interest if he were prez….they should DEFINATELY ask that question- and let McBush refuse to answer it in public- course they won’t- as long as they keep gettin doughnuts.
McCain’s views on the Middle East are crazy but I am not happy with either Obama’s or Clinton’s either. The umbrella plan is stupid. Israel has something like 300 nuclear weapons plus the second best military in theater after ours. Why or what it even means to provide a nuclear umbrella makes no sense to me at all.
Heck, do we even need Cindy’s return. Wouldn’t just a single number suffice for the time being? The amount of taxable income she paid taxes on? Hard to gleam any of the kids info from that. ;)
It means locking up right-wing/conservative single-issue Jewish voters in Florida, New York and elsewhere. After all, any nuke we use is one the Israeli’s don’t have to.
Atillary’s interpretation of the NIE that pretty plainly states that Iran is nowhere near a nuke yet is another matter and a legitimate reason to question her thinking and understanding of the realities on the ground.
I figured that it was just a ploy to corner the jewish vote- she knows that Israel is perfectly capable of defending herself.
That’s an excellent point.
What I understand Glenn as advocating, which you highlight, is that we fight the battle that’s already on our doorstep. Ignoring it only lets them in the front door and then all hope is gone.
But instead of adopting the GOP tactic of just making shite up, we accurately describe Republicans based on what they do, not how they describe themselves. It’s just good therapy. Reflect back on them the face they show the world, and ask the public about the discrepancy, “Think about that a minute; how it makes you feel?”
McCain gave an absurd response to the question about uninsurability due to pre-existing conditions. He said some kind of baffle-gab about a special fund for Medicare (!???). How would that help adults who are not in Medicare, or elderly who are already covered? Is McCain proposing to expand Medicare to everyone with pre-existing conditions?
Was he talking about the Medicare disability program? People with pre-existing conditions get Medicare?
I’ve never heard about this being part of McCain’s health care proposal.
How fricken much do you have to know to for that not to sound odd.
But, no follow-up, and it was the big opening question for the health care segment.
Do they not have research staff? Yes, but they are hacks just like their bosses and dedicated to the principles of infotainment.
Can they not formulate a pointed questions on crucial and basic problems and issues? That’s not the point of infotainment. In fact, it is what they avoid at all costs.
Why do these talking heads base their questions on doubtful or just plain wrong premises? Because they are paid to. See infotainment above.
Why can they not follow up intelligently (they follow up meanly for Democrats, but not intelligently)? Because they are clowns.
1,818 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen rwcole and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
“…they could ask what investments Cyn has that would represent a conflict of interest if McCrazy were prez…”
That’s a great startin’ point question but absent the returns there is no way ta audit the answer and further more (and maybe this is the point of yer suggestion) ANY investments in her protfolio are gunna pose a potential conflict – but mayBe that’s the point.
KEEP THE FAITH AND REMEMBER CAPITALISM IS NOT GOOD FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVIN’ THINGS!!!
Yes.
I stil prefer Clinton on specific policy proposals, and prefer Obama on his vision of political change. The outrage over this last debate is not that Obama got stung more. It is that after the Russert treatment in a previouis debate, I thought that I would not see anything worse. And then this debate just fell through the toilet seat and down into the privy. Unbelievable.
Little Barak vid anyone?
OT (but not really. Subject: conflict of interest by Pentagon) The Pentagon, Congress, the Administration all have serious conflicts of interest. Analysts who were sent out by the Administration to espouse their talking points on Iraq and Gitmo were invested in military contract firms.
A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis. Until we demand all people in government not have a conflict of interest the lies and corruption and wars will continue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04…..ref=slogin
I guess Hugh is wise person. Everyone should read these stories at TPM and follow all the links.
McCain’s “Respectful” Campaign, vol. I, no. 1
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/190108.php
Russert Dumpster Diving
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/190152.php
McSame’s little cottage in Phoenix
This usually ends up with a person putting all investments in a blind trust for the duration of the presidency- but the process in getting there should allow for a lot of pressuring about just who the McBushes are connected with financially.
Ah perspective in the eye of the beholder.
That video certainly doesn’t make Hillary look good.
But, in my estimation, it doesn’t make him look that great either.
:(
1,818 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Raven:
Thanx, I needed that…this guy is the real deal…I am truly worried about his safety.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, WE GOTTA GET THIS GUY’S BACK!!
Hilary is very much in debt to the neocons, e.g., Haim Saban founding contributor to the Saban Center for Mideast Policy at the Brookings Institution. The Center’s director is Martin Indyk, a foreign-policy advisor to Clinton. It’s research director is Kenneth Pollock, the author of The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq , who now maintains that it is reasonable for McCain to refer to any and all Islamic insurgents as “Al Qaeda.” And, as an “associate” it has Michael O’Hanlon, a Clinton advisor who together with Pollack was early to proclaim the success of the surge.
Saban himself is an Israeli multi-billionaire who brought us the Power Rangers and who now owns a major share of Univision, the major Spanish language network in the U.S. and who claims: “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel”. . . . “On the issues of security and terrorism I am a total hawk.”
rwcole:
As I said…”a good startin’ point” but we need somethin ta keep this particular subject goin’ and even partial tax resturns from the trophy would do it.
Oops. McCain said a special Medicaid trust fund for pre-existing conditions.
Ok, substitute poor for elderly and you have the same obvious questions.
And Stephanoloulos implies that the Democratic health care plans are ‘government run health care’
And he doesn’t challenge McCain when he implies UK and Canada are only social insurance models for health care delivery.
As I was told by the CEO of a company purchasing a company I was working for “Wealth starts at $100 million dollars”.
When one gets there (and surely the McBushes have)- then a few million for a house is chicken feed. She INHERITED the damned thing anyway apparently. I know people who live in 10,000 square foot monstrocities. They are actually a lot more trouble than they are worth, in my opinion; but the money is usually not an issue for those who live that way.
Someone has to actually MANAGE the care and maintainence of the “castle”, though- and if you hire someone to do it, you at least have to manage THEM. I wouldn’t have one of the monsters if I COULD afford it.
I agree about the stupidity. The model is the purported nuclear umbrella (nice euphemism, keeps off the rain of aggression) the US cast over Western Europe by threatening to retaliate against a Soviet military advance there by using nuclear weapons. The model also made an asset out of the fact that the US and Europe were unable or unwilling to match the Soviets in mechanized troop strength, and therefore needed technology to fill the gap.
The fallacies in the model have long been discussed. For one, the threat has to be credible AND an undesired consequence for the opponent. Think about suicide bombers for a minute and the latter element melts away.
As for the former, which incursions in the Middle East, Europe or Asia would be severe enough to justify using nuclear weapons as a proportional response? In the 1950’s was that the Soviet occupation of a border village (to avoid the kind of inertia Hitler acquired by re-occupying the Rhineland)? Or did it require a direct threat to London, Paris or Bonn? Universities littered the world with PhD’s on such topics. And will do so again if we resurrect that model.
The first use of nuclear weapons is catastrophic for more reasons than the direct and lingering damage they do. It lowers the bar and makes others, out of fear or vendetta, more likely to do the same. That’s why the best brains in the world developed alternatives, such as non-proliferation treaties.
Mr. Bush casually discarded those as “archaic”, and inconsistent with Mr. Cheney’s vision of the unilateral, unrestricted right to use American might anywhere he sees fit. That’s the world view of draft dodgers and drop-outs getting even with their betters. The only difference with Mr. McCain is that he’d be even more likely to push the button so that he could prove to doubters that his rigidity is not a function of his age, his personal limitations, or those little blue pills.
The entire McCain platform as I understand it is this: Eternal War and Tax-cuts. If you want anything else, don’t ask because it ain’t a-gonna happen.
I don’t think Hillary is catering to the NeoCons during election and will drop them like a hot potato once elected. They are so geared up and ready to go. They know that if either Hillary or McCain gets in they return to Foreign Policy, War Policy and banking control. Their objective is to control military and economic control.
Bill accepted so many NeoCon policies and put them in key positions. I expect nothing to change with Hillary. She’ll have one or two issues to throw to the people so we can be preoccupied with it but the rest will be her NeoConservative views.
Under Hillary we will continue being a Warfare State.
Anyone checking to see if all those who maintain the McBush McMansion are ALL documented workers?
If we had the goods, would it get traction?
I’m just the piano player.
Nothin this fucker does is gonna matter.
I don’t know. Most politicians (particularly in the Southwest) are hip to the need to avoid undocumented domestic workers- but who the hell knows. If some are employed there- it would probably at least provide a couple of days of moderate heat.
…tax cuts for the rich, that is.
Perhaps instead of using the words “government run health care” which conjures up visions of no treatment, long lines, denied care by bureaucrats with high-school educations, Dems should start calling it “single payer care”: you get treated, the government pays your bill and everyone is covered cradle to grave. Hating that would be akin to hating Mom and Apple Pie, unless you’re the CEO of a Giant HealthCareCo or Big Pharma.
1,818 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen wigwam and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Thanx for postin’ this information but this has been there for people to see for a long time…why is Mrs. McClinton still a viable DEMOCRATIC candidate after all we now know about her political obligations and base beliefs and her lack of character in her own fuckin’ words? And why are there ANY progressives who are still apologizin’ for her? Ya think we might have a racism problem right here in Liberalville?
I for one am glad the primary has ground on this long because it has led to exposure of the undemocratic and unDmocratic elements in the party. Let’s remember that the Democratic Party is a big tent that doesnt have room for corporate fascists.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…FASCISM IS NOT GOOD FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVING THINGS!!
Oh, I didn’t mean to offend.
I’m just the watcher/listener.
I just thought, that if one took out the Hillary stuff, that people might see it as making fun of Obama.
What “neo-cons” did Bill put in key positions? I wasn’t aware of that.
Negative offense.
No one’s advocating single payer care are they?
Is Hillary secretly in love with Short-ride Joe? Sometimes, especially when she talks about opening her “umbrella” in the impending nuclear rain, I have to wonder.
So far, no.
Do you anticipate that one of the candidates will begin advocating it in the future?
What a statement. It has to include seniors. Even many years before becoming a senior has anyone NOT had a precondition. Did you ever see the list of preconditions which can be added to at any time? About the only thing excluded is a broken toenail. And I’m not so sure about that. I’d like to meet the superhuman who goes through their entire life in perfect physical health. The last one I knew dropped dead of a heart attack on a run.
Does that mean, by McCain’s plan, most people will be on Medicaid? I gueeese!
Well that is kinda the point. What the Democrats are offering does not even go as far as single payer, and single payer does not go as far as ‘government run’ health care.
Yet Stephy just sits there and characterized the Democratic plans as ‘government run’ health care. He is either incompetent or corrupt, and no matter which, much of the public is misled.
WaPo.
Saturday, October 16, 2004; Page A02
Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, had taxable income of nearly $2.3 million in 2003 and paid a federal and state tax bill of close to $800,000, according to two pages of tax forms released by the Kerry campaign yesterday.
So the question that MUST be asked by every media pundit, EVERYDAY, is “When will Cindy McCain release the same information Teresa Heinz Kerry did? Huh, when?”
Not that I’m holding my breath or anything…
Actually I use the phrase of “Medicare for ALL”…. it is a plan that everyone knows, understands and is equal to single payer healthcare without getting into the stupid socialized medicine which is what McBush had until he left the military….
THE only US socialized national medicine is the military & VA system. Ya don’t hear them calling them commies ….
Ah. See, we knew he believe in Universal Coverage. Now just quibbling over the details right? Right?
Well, it would be nice… I mean let’s face it, what are the choices? The “free market” bullshit is open to all the loopholes of “pre-existing conditions”, competitive models are a joke because no one competes on price they compete on everything else but (when was the last time you saw an ad for “low cost gall bladder surgery” aimed at a consumer?
It’s the question of day in some ways. I am not a health-care policy wonk but I know that the days to fear “socialized” medicine are behind us. My friends who are MDs are already talking about health care moving that way… they don’t see the system being able to support an aging, retiring population the way it is currently structured.
The Medicaid trust fund for preconditions makes no sense as a solution to pre-existing conditions for most of the population, and that should be obvious to any educated person. It has no appeared in any McCain plan I have ever read. So did McCain make it up?
And little Stephy lets it slide.
Most of the talking heads are just plain stupid and uninformed. I can’t believe how many time I have heard some of them pronounce words incorrectly. I don’t think they read or study but just sit down and blather. Their time is too valuable to waste it reading.
Good point, katy. I like that phrase, and it’s immediately understandable even by the slack-jawed idiots.
I don’t want a verbally-abusive man, who calls his wife a trollop and a c***…who dumped his first wife for a rich one who had to take drugs to cope….anywhere near the White House.
Barbie Lou McCain you mean?
Little Stephy also said that it is obvious that Iran is going for nuclear weapons and going full steam ahead, or something very close. And that the conclusion of the Middle East foreign policy segment was based on that doubtful premise.
But they look good while they’re doing it! Great thing about print and radio was that those media emphasized content over superficiality.
Yup. She may control the money, but he controls her. Also, just watch the body language of their daughter.
*sigh* It’s so obvious that the NIE says Iran gave up any nuke program back in 2003. There’s no reason to even give assholes like Snuffleupagus access to information, is there?
Yes, I’d like very much to know about McSame’s medical history, past and present. As well as what meds he is now taking and has taken in the past. His lack of adult behavior/control regarding an explosive temper is very worrisome and makes me think he has serious behavioral problems
Dude, NIE’s are presumably factual estimates and facts are for losers. Haven’t you learned anything yet? [/snark off] LOL
Actually, that might be a good bar for getting rid of a bunch of folks in DC.
The neocons would rather have McCain the Obama, and that is why they are insisting that Hillary stay in the race, and why several of them signed the letter to Pelosi telling her to butt out about the superdelegates.
It’s no wonder the McCains keep their finances separate. The first Mrs. McCain is getting alimony, so if ex-hubby’s money was mingled with the replacement wife’s, the alimony might go up. He only pays her $18,000 a year. Pathetic for a guy who lives in the lap of luxury in many homes.
After she waited five years for him while he was a POW, you’d think she deserves better.
And, before I go outside to enjoy the day, I must ask folks here one thing.
Is it or is it not true that McCain full on hard core lied on a nationally televised GOP debated to specific question: did he admit this summer that he did not know much about economics.
Unless I was hallucinating, I remember McCain denying it, and then repeatedly and insistently denying it, and bullying people while denying it.
And there are three or four quotes and clips of McCain admitting that he did not know much about economics. I think I remember seeing a montage stringing the lie and quotes end to end (on Daily Show?)
Why is that not just as bad, arguable worse that Clinton’s creative memories about her trip to the Balkans? Yet, has McCain’s knowing lie ever been discussed anywhere in punditland?
Scott Ritter said that we were all scammed by the NIE….. think back to Iraq…. they didn’t have a WMD program and no matter what they could not prove a negative….. NOW Iran game up their nuclear program in 2003 BUT what if they NEVER had one…… just exactly how are they going to prove that negative….. we been had…
NOW Iran
gamegave up their nuclear program in 2003Of course not. Punditland has a big woody for McCain.
After she waited five years for him while he was a POW, you’d think she deserves better
That’s a travesty that St. John is going to have to explain in detail at some point. I think it’s one of those things that might bring out his famous “temper” if pressed on it.
His first wife gets $18,000 a year in alimony, and he probably begrudges her every cent of it.
Here are Clinton’s cabinet members for both terms. Which of them are/were neocons?:
Cabinet – 1st Term
Al Gore, Vice-President, 1993
Warren Christopher, Secretary of State, 1993
Lloyd Bentsen, Treasury Secretary, 1993
Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary, 1995
Janet Reno, Attorney General, 1993
Les Aspin, Secretary of Defense, 1993
William Perry, Secretary of Defense, 1994
Bruce Babbitt, Interior Secretary, 1993
Mike Espy, Secretary of Agriculture, 1993
Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture, 1995
Ron Brown, Commerce Secretary, 1993
Mickey Kantor, Commerce Secretary, 1996
Robert Reich, Labor Secretary, 1993
Donna Shalala, Secretary of HHS, 1993
Henry Cisneros, Secretary of HUD, 1993
Frederico Pena, Secretary of Transportation, 1993
Hazel O’Leary, Secretary of Energy, 1993
Richard Riley, Education Secretary, 1993
Jesse Brown, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 1993
Cabinet – 2nd Term
Al Gore, Vice-President, 1997
Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State, 1997
Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary, 1995
Lawrence Summers, Treasury Secretary, 1999
Janet Reno, Attorney General, 1993
William Cohen, Secretary of Defense, 1997
Bruce Babbitt, Interior Secretary, 1993
Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture, 1995
William Daley, Commerce Secretary, 1997
Norm Mineta, Commerce Secretary, 2000
Alexis Herman, Labor Secretary, 1997
Donna Shalala, Secretary of HHS, 1993
Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of HUD, 1997
Richard Riley, Education Secretary, 1993
Rodney Slater, Secretary of Transportation, 1997
Frederico Pena, Secretary of Energy, 1997
Bill Richardson, Secretary of Energy, 1998
Jesse Brown, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 1993
Togo West, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 1998
Hershel Gober, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 2000
I don’t care about challenging it, not at this point. I care about winning. If I have to take a Mac truck full of their stereotypes and run right over them with it, I’ll deal with my poor karma later. We must survive.
Metaphorically speaking, that is.
Clinton used NeoCon advisors. Both Cheney and Rumsfeld were in full swing diminishing the military, their long time plan, and Clinton took the heat for “cutting back the military and making us vulnerable”. He knew what Cheney and Rumsfeld were about but he allowed them to take control of the military.
Greenspan – Was he kidding appointing him to the Federal Reserve and giving him a prominent position in banking and our economy?
NAFTA – he listened to NeoCon advice.
He gave in to the two key NeoConservative objectives – economics and military. Banking they but under economics.
Henry Kissinger was a key advisor on foreign affairs. What was he doing even in the picture?
We have to keep hammering the issues as if they were salacious tabloid items.
You frame it that way and keep plugging away. The right is trying to create an image of Obama as unpatriotic, militant and elitist. We have to create the imageof McCain…though it really is not so much creating him as telling the truth about him and putting it out there.
Whaaaaaaaaa? Repubs having one standard for themselves and one for everyone else?
No way!
Go Johnna Nicole Smithcain!
An excerpt from McCain’s interview with Snuffy today lays out pretty clearly how he handles dissent. After the implied, “Cheney you!”, he responded to an awkward question about health care by Reminding.Us.All ™ that he had had health care at the hands of the Viet Cong for several years, and it wasn’t so pretty.
Not that that was relevant to the fact that he, his father and grandfather (all career Navy and, in St. John’s case, a CongressCritter) lived their entire careers with the best health care the US government could buy. But then distracting from that point was his point.
St. John was responding to a refreshingly honest question asked by Snuffy about Mrs. Edwards criticisms of St. John’s health care proposals. She pointed out McSame’s lifelong addiction to government-financed health care, that his insurance proposals would do nothing to make health care more available or affordable, and that as a multi-millionaire, he didn’t need insurance of any kind to manage the unexpected costs of medical care.
McSame’s response is really, “I’m the victim here, sonny, so STFU about what my policies would really do. That’s an order.” Snuffy, of course, is also a multi-millionaire and doesn’t need insurance either. But at least he asked a good question.
h/t crooksandliars
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..more-28526
Because no one has had the good sense or character to throw him in jail.
We either pony-up some justice for these war criminals or they came back like crabgrass.
and are lauded when they come back. Ain’t that something?
Flyby here on the way out the door again, but reading the header & post up top, all I could think was…
maybe this is the key to tearing down the macho McCain image & the “he’s so studly” massage the MSM continues to give him.
Plus pissing him off royally.
I can’t help but conclude the ugly words & jarring overreaction thrown @ Cindy McCain when she joked about his thinning hair welled up from this chink in St. John’s armor.
Yup. I’m sure that $1500/month goes a long way. I imagine it’s less than St. John’s monthly beer allowance.
haven’t read the post or comments yet—am catching up on threads and news and while flitting around saw the title–had to comment….
(get brain bleach ready)
thought to myself, there’s a word for women like that–and for the men that are kept.
jigilo
then pictured mccain singing like david lee roth
”i’m just a jigilooooooow……”
omg.
========
and LS—or anyone that was watching it— earlier you said that in his ’interview’ with mccain, wolf broke to commercial with a teaser about upcoming questions about his medical records–what was said by mccain about that?
bbl
As usual the republics have a different standard for themseleves than they do for everyone else. Not that wives of candidates necessarily should have to release their financial records but since the pukes demanded the Clinton and Obama returns, they should at least practice what they preach.
David has a nice new post ready, if you all are!
Thanks for the reminder about Ritter. Bush and the traditional media, especially CNN, pissed all over his attempts to delay the start of war by arguing that the US had no credible evidence to back up its claims. There weren’t any operational or near-operational WMD’s.
Among other eye-openers in his many autobiographical sketches is his disclosure that the US government actively opposed the UN’s peacekeeping efforts in Iraq, and that it tapped the UN’s communications to find out what the Secretary General and the UN’s weapons inspectors knew about the absence of WMD’s and what they planned to do about it.
I had no idea that Kissinger was a close advisor to Clinton. Do you have a link to more information about that? Thanks.
David’s nice new post does not appear to be the one that shown below. When I try to get to “Now That’s Just Rude.” from the link that has been posted below, I get a 404 error message. So consider yourselves advise.
Note that that tax rate seems to be much higher than Shrub or the Cheneys paid. Fewer tax dodges or more earned income rather than passive income?
Those of us that dwell in AZ know that it is a community property state. If my wife or I want to keep any financial interest in only our own name, the other spouse has to in writing agree to the transaction.
So what does this mean in regards to John & Cindy? If her wealth is not shown on his tax return, then he must have signed his interest away.
Also a curious question. Cindy’s net worth has been published as $100M. Yet the very brief info published on her tax return showed an income of well under a million. Even 3.5% from the local S&L would return $3.5M. Where is the rest invested?
Most people who have $100mm in investments will have much of it in common stocks and in municipal bonds.
The income from municipal bonds is not taxable and wouldn’t show up as taxable income.
The increase in value in commons stocks would only be shown as a captial gain if and when they are sold.
“wealth”, of course, doesn’t directly show up on a tax return- only INCOME.
Agree with what you say, however, there is also interest in most of my brokerage accounts and most of my portfolio pays dividends and they are reportable.
And does McStain have a “pre-nup”? Did she loan any of his campaigns money? If so, the argument that her wealth is irrelevant to his own finances is a bit absurd. Any investments she makes can be influence by legislation he undertakes. This needs to antiseptic sunlight exposed to it.
And this whole bulldada of “protecting the kids” needs far greater scutiny. Why would revealing Cyndy’s assets and investments impact the kids, at all? Do they have $10,000/moth allowances, or something? Are they utterly spoiled Paris Hiltons? I someone receiving massive health care treatments for drug abuse that was written off as health-expenses?
We don’t need to know such things (even though they may go to the issue of leadership)…but we should know how much she’s shunting into his campaigns and what their investments are.
“Supposedly” the health records “are” being located and put together for release…”last week”…*g*
Would it be in the same “blind trust” as McCain’s honesty and manhood?
McCain does have a pre-nup with Cindy.
Yeah, dividends would show up- but they represent a small fraction of the capital gains generated by the stock- at least in a good year.
Precisely. Like other happily married couples, even between retreads and trophy wives, the McSames are a single economic unit, no matter the individual interests each might pursue. A competent pre-nuptial agreement, if one exists, could only modify that so much.
As with shouts to disclose the Clintons’, the Kerrys’, the Edwards’ returns, whether filed jointly or not, whether there were children “to protect” or not, disclosure of at least a part of Mrs. McCain’s returns is essential.
We probably don’t need to see details of various trusts that might protect her or any children from McSame’s spendthrift ways, but there are lots of ways she might spend money to benefit St. John, and lots of ways her $100 million wealth might benefit from his and his lobbyists’ proposed tax and other policies.
I have the same standard for both, too. But I think they should be released. How do we know that she isn’t benefitting from her husband’s votes if we don’t know where her money is invested? And I’d like to know how much she makes with exclusive distribution rights to the Phoenix Stadium.
If he benefits from her money (and he most certainly does) than the source of her income should be available to the public.
I wonder what would have happened if Hillary had excluded Bill’s income.
And one more thing…is it routine for the very wealthy not to file jointly? Have they always done this or did it begin when he knew he would run for the presidency?
Not to be picky, but I think you underestimate the impact of dividends. My last statement showed Anheuser Busch paying 2.8%. Say Cindy has $20M in Anheuser Busch – that equates to $560,000. (PS – my holdings are very tiny)
I wouldn’t put it past McCain to funnel all sick people into Medicaid so that his buds in the insurance industry can then only insure healthy people. Insurance companies love to pick and choose who they want which is why they have pre-existing conditions in the first place. But if what McCain says is true then everyone should just stay out of insurance plans until they get sick and then go to Medicaid to be insured. Let’s cut out the middleman. LOL
Just heard two interesting points on 1480 KPHX….
1. McBush owns 8 homes or it might be that he has 8 homes to live in …. don’t we all?
2. Big Oil just donated $1.5 million to McBush in the last month…. MORE than both HRC & Obama combined.
Jane, reading your post inspired me to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I researched the 8 homes owned by the McCains & wrote a long post about it, with pictures: http://mainstusa.blogspot.com/…..d-why.html
A kept man who abandoned his loyal, disfigured first wife for the heiress who could keep him.