Some of my Arizona friends are ready to leave the country if McCain gets elected because of what they know about him, and this includes Democrats and Republicans who were leaders in the business community in the late 70s and 80’s when he came up. Most of them were CSR officers in their companies.
I was in the PR business during that time, and knew most of the stuff, but hadn’t remembered it until yesterday when I went to a birthday party for one of their grandkids and my friend Sharon, who at the time was the CSR officer for the largest local bank, reminded me that:
1)Mc Cain was chosen to be a candidate by Duke Tully, then the publisher of the Az Republic, a Pulliam newspaper that supported Kemper Marley, who had connections to organized crime and gave Cindy McCain’s father his opportunity for the Budweiser distributorship.
2)At the time, Phoenix was controlled by The Phoenix 40, a backroom group of men who ran the city and wanted more influence in Washington for things like water issues.
3)McCain was their tool. They didn’t care who he was or what he believed, but they believed they could get him elected because he was a war hero.
4)Soon after he married Cindy, stories began to come out about spousal abuse. Those stories, which circulated around the country clubs to which all these leaders belonged (myself included) were about how bad their marriage was, and the spousal abuse. John McCain was NEVER in Arizona, and when he was, Cindy didn’t like it. That is supposedly why she got addicted to pain killers; it was the bad marriage. They have basically never lived together for any length of time during the marriage.
5)the McCain’s gave Duke Tully a party for his retirement from the military. (Supposedly Tully was a fighter pilot, like McCain. McCain got him special privileges to fly F-16s at Luke AFB. I remember Duke telling me that over martinis at Avanti in Phoenix.)
My friend Sharon had to attend the retirement party as part of her job, although she already knew what it was soon going to emerge that Tully was never in the military.Two weeks later, all that came out, and Tully was forced to resign. Oooops, for John McCain, who always knew Tully wasn’t in the military but went along with the fiction because TUlly published the paper, which was in the tank for any Republican candidate.That’s how Arizona worked back then. I’ll bet it’s how Alaska works now.
Enough. I’m going to put this on my own blog:-)
And, the Democrats know all this dirt, which has been repeatedly reprinted in New Times, Rolling Stone, etc, but they are not using it in the campaign because they are trying not to go to personal attacks. I wish they would. McCain in Arizona smiles at me when he sees me, but his office is totally unresponsive to anything from constituents. One time I wanted to start a program to teach veterans entrepreneurship skills and was looking for some contacts, and they couldn’t even find the time to help with that. On the other hand, John Kyl, also a conservative Republican, is a good man who serves the people. It’s not a party issue; it’s a character issue.
Update: I know people are going to ask me for sources on this post. I will refer you first to Pat Murphy, the man who succeeded Tully as publisher of the Arizona Republic, who is now retired and living in Idaho, or Bill Shover, who was the CSR person for the Republic during the same era. He is in Phoenix. Shover has already taked to NPR in a story I heard unexpectedly while driving down Highway 1 this summer. I am told Murphy has also talked to the press. Amy SIlverman from New Times has been covering this stuff for years, but you may dismiss New Times as “left.” You can’t dismiss Shover and Murphy as left, trust me. My friend Sharon Liese, who lives in Park City now and was the CSR person for Valley Bank while Shover was at the Republic, is also wanting to talk to the press. All these people are stunned that McCain could get this far.
Originally posted as a comment by hardaway on Scripting News using Disqus.
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Huh. I’m reminded of this article from a few years ago:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/15/opinion/meyer/main2182755.shtml
Two quotes:
“it’s just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn’t call a duck a duck, because that’s not something we’re supposed to do.”
He’s referring to Newt Gingrich, Richard Armey and Tom Delay, but goes on to say:
“The colleagues that wielded the most power — like McCain, Simpson, Lugar, Specter, Stevens, Warner — have had long runs of service in several arenas relatively free of public and private embarrassment and hypocrisy — and even some substantial accomplishments pre-Senate.”
But now, of course, it’s looking like the *very same* conspiracy of silence in the media applied to McCain. Somehow, I’m not particularly stunned that McCain could get this far. It worked for GWB too (a born-again alcoholic coke-head draft dodger), after all.
Oh, I forgot to say that if Karl Rove had wanted McCain out of the senate in 2000, instead of just out of the presidential race, I’m sure this all would have come out then.
It’s the secrets you have on folks that you *don’t* tell anyone that give you power, and I’m sure that various Powers-That-Be were only too glad to try and get a new puppet into the White House if they could, hence the same mud-slinging crew that took McCain out for GWB in 2k is working for him today.
With all due respect, I am not going to touch this story. As an Obama supporter, we do not need to spread this crap around. The sourcing is not confirmed. JJust because Palin is now tossing garbage off her team’s sinking ship, we don’t need to. The issue is not the garbage but the economy. John McCain has served with dignity most of his years. But he is too old, too eratic in behavior, too much a friend of banking and has too weak a running mate for a man in questionable health. Those issues are fair play. Digging for dirt under fingernails of an incident that occurred 30 years ago is not relevant; nor is it necessary to win this election.
Shel, Rolling Stone has just published every story about John McCain that I would ever need to publish. They add up to a morality I don’t share.
Most of my friends and family in Arizona tell me that Arizonans don’t really like McCain. How did he keep getting elected all this time?
He has fallen much in my estimation. I was never a huge fan, but I thought he was a better than average republican.
He keeps getting elected because of the power of incumbency; when you have a Senator who has been around a long time, they get money and good committees. Everyone wants their Senator to be on good committees.
I am stunned that such a cowardly worm could get so far too.
Wife-beaters are cowards.
I’m the last one to say issues are not as important as character — I think the issues in this race are huge — but you can certainly see how someone like McCain handles issues when you read the Rolling Stone story, which takes all this much further about the womanizing, gambling, crashing planes, etc. Do we need to have another spoiled rich brat in office?
Very Nice Post!
Thanks a lot for your blog!