Thursday, September 4

Did she really steal drugs from her own charity?

Cindy McCain looked so nice in her speech at the GOP convention tonight.

It's hard to believe they featured the story of how she started her own nonprofit called the American Voluntary Medical Team, but they left out the part of the story where she was investigated by the DEA for stealing drugs to feed her addiction to prescription painkillers.

I believe she wore red that day. She granted semi-exclusive interviews to one TV station and three daily newspaper reporters in Arizona, tearfully recalling her addiction, which came about after painful back and knee problems and was exacerbated by the stress of the Keating Five banking scandal that had ensnared her husband. To make matters worse, McCain admitted, she had stolen the drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team, her own charity, and had been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The local press cooed over her hard-luck story. One of the four journalists spoon-fed the story -- Doug McEachern, then a reporter for Tribune Newspapers, now a columnist with the Arizona Republic (and, it must be added, normally much more acerbic) -- wrote this rather typical lead:

"She was blonde and beautiful. A rich man's daughter who became a politically powerful man's wife. She had it all, including an insidious addiction to drugs that sapped the beauty from her life like a spider on a butterfly."

Hmmm. But that's old news, right?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Listen to Cindy speaking - she sounds like she's tranquilized ... slurring words, glassy eyes, half closed... ... what gives???? On Sunday with Stephanopolis she seemed fine ... tonight? REALLY BAD.

Anonymous said...

I'm beginning to get the sense that you are not a fan of the Republicans ;) but isn't the recovering drug addict wife off limits in a presidential campaign?

Anonymous said...

Cindy is very active on nonprofit boards. I hope those groups lock up their medicine cabinets.

Travis Trott said...

Sally S: When Republicans insist on making "family values" and "character" main issues in elections, pill-popping, thieving potential first ladies are not off-limits.