ProgressOhio

The right-wing rag The Washington Times published a cute Valentine’s Day article all about political couples and their courtships entitled “Campaigning with Cupid.” It begins:

Cindy Hensley met future husband John McCain at a military reception in Hawaii in 1979. She was 24, he was 17 years her senior, and both lied about their ages. He monopolized her time all night and later invited her out for a drink. “By the evening’s end, I was in love,” the Arizona senator has said.

Gee, what a sweet sounding Valentine's day story . . .

Did you notice that there was zero news coverage of their wedding anniversary on May 17th?

That's because the truth is somewhat different than the sweet Valentines story Reverend Moon's Washington Times reported.

McCain was still married and living with his wife [Carol] in 1979 while, according to The New York Times‘ Nicholas Kristof, “aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich.” McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife’s family money.

Cindy Hensley was 24; John McCain was 41 when they first met in 1979. She was single. He was married with 3 children.

The U.S. Veteran Dispatch:

 When McCain returned to the United States in 1973 after more than five years as a prisoner of war, he found his wife was a different person. Carol McCain, once a model, had been badly injured in a car wreck in 1969. The accident "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she gained a good deal of weight." Despite her injures, she had refused to allow her POW husband to be notified about her condition, fearing that such news would not be good for him while he was being held prisoner.

But, just a couple years later, McCain, while pondering a future in politics, met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25-year-old woman from a very wealthy politically-connected Arizona family. While still married to Carol, McCain began an adulterous relationship with Cindy. He married Cindy in May 1980 -- just a month after dumping his crippled wife and securing a divorce.

Less than 8 months after he met Cindy Hensley, McCain divorced his wife Carol, to whom he was married for 15 years, in April, 1980 and married Cindy one month later in May, 1980.

McCain Busts a Move

As Kristoff reports in the Times (Feb, 27, 2000):

In his tiny cubicle in the Russell Senate Office Building, in the lowest foothills of political power, a frustrated Navy officer wrestled with friends over what to do with his life.

It was 1979, and it was becoming clear that he would never make admiral like his father and grandfather. He had always dreamed of doing something great, of imprinting his name on the history books, but at age 42 he found himself with a stuttering military career and no base from which to go into politics.

On top of that, his personal life was a mess: Although he was still living with his wife, he was aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich.

That troubled period was perhaps the crucial turning point in John McCain's life, and the decisions that he made then started him on the course that he hopes will take him to the White House in January.

In just a few years from those times of soul-searching in his office as Navy liaison to the Senate, Mr. McCain would have a new wife, a new home state and a bright new political star as president of the class of newly elected Republican members of the House of Representatives.

For a candidate running on character and biography, it is also an awkward time to remember: Mr. McCain abandoned his wife, who had reared their three children while he was in Vietnamese prisons, and he then began his political career with the resources of his new wife's family.

<snip>

John and Carol McCain had separated once briefly after they moved to Washington, when he moved his gear into his mother's house on Connecticut Avenue. That was the first hint that Joe McCain, John's younger brother, had of any marital problems, for neither John nor Carol confided much about personal problems.

''I remember asking him one time,'' Joe McCain recalled. ''I said: 'You don't look so happy. You want to talk about it?' And he said, 'No, pal.' ''

That separation lasted about two weeks and was not repeated until the final split, said their son Andy, and even close family friends never knew about it. To outsiders, who often visited the McCain household, the marriage seemed as close as ever.

''They were definitely living together as man and wife when I was there,'' recalled Mr. Smith, the former instructor pilot, who moved to Washington and lived with the McCains in their home from about February through May 1979. ''And there were no signs of strain.

''For somebody to say that they were separated or at each other's throats is just nonsense,'' Mr. Smith said.

Yet at precisely the time that Mr. Smith was a guest in what appeared to be a happy household, in April 1979, Mr. McCain accompanied a group of senators on a trip to China. The Navy threw a big cocktail party for the group during a stopover in Honolulu.

''John and I were talking, and then somebody tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around and exchanged a few words,'' said Albert A. Lakeland, then a Senate staff member. ''When I turned around, John was gone. I looked around, and he was making a beeline for this very attractive blond woman.

''He spent the whole party talking to her, and he kept avoiding me when I approached,'' Mr. Lakeland said. After the reception, Mr. McCain and the young woman, Cindy Hensley, went out to dinner, and the romance blossomed.

Mr. McCain continued to pursue Miss Hensley, calling her to keep in touch. When she thanked him for sending flowers that had just arrived (signed ''John'') he said it was nothing. As she discovered years later, they were from another man named John.

Over the next six months, Mr. McCain pursued Miss Hensley aggressively, flying around the country to see her, and he began to push to end his marriage. Friends say that Carol McCain was in shock.

Late that year, the McCains finally separated, and Mrs. McCain accepted a divorce the next February. Mr. McCain promptly married Miss Hensley, his present wife.

Apparently none of this violates the Republican Family Values Credo, probably because Cindy was to become an extremely wealthy heiress and was already rich at the time John McCain began his adulterous affair with her.

I wonder what those "older, white women voters" who say that they will vote for McCain if Hillary isn't on the ballot this year would think?