Kevin Drum is incredulous that no one in the media is discussing the fact that John McCain has sheltered all of his assets behind his wife’s name:
Can we stop pretending to be children about this? There’s only one reason for a politician to make sure that all his assets are in his wife’s name: it’s to make sure that no one knows anything about his assets. It’s not as if McCain is the first pol to try this, after all.
Is the press really going to let him get away with this?
Kinda makes you wonder about that liberal media, doesn’t it? I mean, if the media really was all that liberal and in the tank with the Democrats, you would think by now impeachment proceedings would be under way for Bush. At the very least, a liberal media would not have spent the last 4 months painting Hillary Clinton as a castrating bitch and Barack Obama as a scary negro who hangs out with terrorists.
But then again, maybe the media is liberal and scheming, and they are just holding until things are boring in September and October to drop it on the McCain campaign then. If I were a paranoid conservative type, that would be my concern.
More than likely, the media will just ignore it, though- McCain has gotten a free ride with the press for so long it is just second nature. Cripes, go check out the Daily Howler (or his incomparable archives!) on any given day if you don’t believe me. Chances are, they won’t ask because they might miss out on some of that good BBQ action.
The Grand Panjandrum
I still think Matt Taibbi has a pretty healthy outlook on the true nature of the press:
Nuff said.
annagranfors
“Is the press really going to let him get away with this?”
No, no, dear boy. They’re going to HELP him get away with this.
I get so pissed off every time someone wonders why “the press aren’t doing their jobs” or says “the press are lazy”. How can you even think that after seven years…? The “press”, being a subsidiary of Corporatocracy USA, are COMPLICIT. No more, no less.
Dennis - SGMM
Yes. Because McCain is a straight talking maverick. That’s the narrative and anything that doesn’t fit is ignored. Just as during the early parts of the Democratic primary campaign the press seized on The First Woman versus the First African American narrative and that was that for the other candidates.
I sometimes suspect that the Democrats believe the “liberal media” myth as much as the Republicans do.
Jake
The press is stuck on stupid.
demkat620
McCain makes them feel all funny down there.
General Disorder
You’re talking class warfare, man. Don’t go there. It’s not fair and it’s unAmerican. So, he married to a beer fortune. See, the press is just showing respect.
Soylent Green
Real Americans drink Budweiser, not orange juice.
Davis X. Machina
In this, the latter days of a once-great nation, it’s easier to change the government than to change The Narrative.
On the tombstone of the Republic will be the epitaph “Killed By A Story Arc”.
Robert Sneddon
Mrs McCain inherited her money, emphasis on “her”. Three gets you five there’s a pre-nuptual agreement buried in a lawyer’s office somewhere. Senator John Sidney McCain III may be married to her but he’s not necessarily married to her money.
If he has free access to all that cash, then why did he get involved in the Keating 5 scandal in the late 80s? That was penny-ante crap in comparison to a beer heiress’ loot.
Just Some Fuckhead
Maybe when Wolf is done factchecking anti-McCain ads….
nightjar
The children all want to hear the story of Saint McCain and his enlightened vision of family values. Calling Pat Buchanan at MSNBC.
General Disorder
Since, for the most part, it’s the press that’s been tagging along on the “Straight Talk Express,” isn’t it really a “Man Crush Express?”
Zuzu
I don’t know about cowardice, but the laziness factor is mindblowing. The number of times they wrote about or hosted one of those Slow Boat liars without bothering to do the most basic research first…it was quite amazing.
Dave_Violence
McCain’s boring right now. The Hillary! vs. Obama war is selling a lot of papers. Things may or may not change. It’s business, that’s all.
Some Guy Named Matt
What Liberal Media?
I just borrowed it off a friend and haven’t had time to delve into it yet. But this might be up you ally John
Richard Bottoms
It was a 49% country when I was goading John four years ago.
It’s a 49% country now that I am fucking with David.
Not a bit of it matters. Republicans will lie, say they will consider Obama or Hillary whatever the silly fantasy they’re selling this week.
But really they want their tax cuts or zygote protection or some excuse to say the Democrats would be worse, and fuck everybody else.
The only thing that matters, the only thing that has mattered for eight years is the %3 of independents who actually give a shit about the real world.
Republicans, jam it. Stuff it where it don’t shine. Keep your vote,w e need to learn to win without it.
You’re only talking this yang now because Romney was just a little too brazenly slick to beat out grandpa for the nomination.
All they really want is someone who can best obscure the fag bashing wacko Christian snake handlers who run your party for six or seven months.
pennywit
Sigh. Let’s set aside the conspiracy ranting. Here’s a likely scenario: The press isn’t covering the question because they’re concentrating on the Democratic race. Then again, it could be a conspiracy. It’s not like Bloomberg or Slate didn’t do anything. Or maybe the AP. Or the Los Angeles Times. Or USA Today. Nope. The media are totally ignoring the story.
–|PW|–
–|PW|–
Martin
They’ll leave McCain mostly untouched until the Dem nominee is chosen.
Richard Bottoms
>They’ll leave McCain mostly untouched until the Dem nominee >is chosen.
Or until they stop hoarding their cash at the DNC and start eviscerating the motherfucker.
PaulB
And the major television news media? Fox? CNN? ABC? CBS? NBC? MSNBC?
DougJ
I’m a peaceful man, but I really think the only hope for our civilization is that someone carries a bomb into one of the White House correspondent dinners. It’s pretty amazing to be living through this, an era in which our entire civilization is systematically destroyed by the media.
I realize that may sound extreme.
Incertus
The DNC has been doing anything but hoarding its cash. It’s been the weak link in the Democratic fundraising machine lately, because Dean basically pissed off the Clinton machine by not losing to their preferred candidate(s) back in 2005. He’s also spent the money they’ve had coming in at a higher rate by hiring organizers in states where the national party has been invisible for decades–remember those “nosepickers” Paul Begala was complaining about back before the 2006 elections? Basically, he’s been doing party-building, and that takes money, money that in the past would have gone to television (and the pockets of Democratic consultants who ought to be hung up by their nads).
They’ll run ads–they’re fundraising for them right now, as a matter of fact–but I’m more pleased with the other work they’re doing.
AkaDad
It’s completely logical that the Liberal Media™ would smear the most Liberal Senator.
Richard Bottoms
I have bo quarrel with Howard Dean, we did win congress after all. But right, now this second it’s time to start taking a figurative pipe wrench to John McCain.
Cain
Can someone still tell me why McCain is still polling 49% or whatever nearly half with the democratic one? I don’t understand why people support this guy?
The only thing I admire is that the bastard is till advocating war even though he has a son in Iraq. It might be great fun to ask the son whether he agrees with the war. On the other hand, I rather the press concentrate on stuff that matters.
cain
Soylent Green
I’m not that worried yet about McCain getting his comeuppance in due time. As I have said before, the media likes to build people up before it tears them down.
Reporters, by and large, are lazy and look for the quickest way to make their deadlines. This usually means following the herd.
If you artfully draw the herd to greener pastures, that’s where it will graze. The smartest activists, campaign managers, lobbyists — anyone with an axe to grind, product to promote, or scandal to expose — know how to produce tasty morsels for the press to chew on. But don’t expect the media to feed themselves.
I’m convinced that many of the commentators, columnists, and satirists are getting their best material straight from the blogs. So keep up the good work.
Soylent Green
It’s the usual percentage of GOP and right-leaning independent voters. This year is all about turnout, not poll results. If the Dems make good on getting out the vote, and assuming Hillary isn’t still a giant buzzkill, a dead heat in the polls will mean nothing on election day.
Brachiator
As pennywit notes, various media sources, from AP to the LA Times, have already looked into McCain’s assets. Drum’s uninformed musing indicates that the mainstream media is lazy and stupid whatever its ideological faults.
He may be sheltering his assets behind his wife’s name, but by any measure she has far more than he has, or likely will have, even if works up to Clintonian levels of earnings from speaker fees. As the AP story notes, Cindy McCain may be worth more than $100 million, and the pre-nuptial agreement that she had John agree to obviously protects the family fortune and business that she inherited far more than it benefits him. In fact, it kinda makes him her bitch.
At a certain level of wealth, the very rich often do what they can to limit public scrutiny of their wealth even if they are not doing anything particularly naughty or nefarious with their money. The Slate article suggests that Cindy McCain has not been very successful in increasing her wealth outside of her inheritance of her father’s stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix:
But some in the media have an extra dose of teh stupid. They so easily forget that John Kerry’s wife also (I think rightly) refused to release her tax returns AND that the GOP tried to make a big stink about it. However, the political blogger from the LA Times is on the case (John McCain releases his tax returns — but not hers*).
So the bigger story may not be Cindy McCain’s money, but rather GOP hypocrisy.
Martin
People don’t pick sides until there are sides to pick. The NL is still in the playoffs, after all.
(I deliberately equate the AL with the GOP because the AL is for pussies.)
KRK
If he’s trying to claim that her money is entirely separate (and therefore need not be disclosed), isn’t she limited to a maximum $2300 contribution to his campaign, just like any other person? Does anyone think her actual contribution is within 100 times that amount?
Phoenix Woman
Dammit, John. There’s no need for me to actually post anything in my own blog anymore; you say what I want to say, only better. So I’ll just link to you and say “What John Said”.
Martin
Win!
Richard Bottoms
Because Republicans are greedy and selfish, willing to ignore that the GOP is now an evil party of torturer supporting, fag bashing, snake handlers– as long as they get their tax cuts?
There are no good Republicans.
There are no bad Democrats.
Period.
TenguPhule
The pollsters are combining McCain’s scores from 2 seperate polls against Clinton and Obama into one.
That, or we fucking deserve to be overrun by the rampaging Chinese Overlords.
area man
Heh, of course at this point it’s less about rampaging than it is “Hey, about that money you owe us…”
Kevin
You’re right. “class warfare” is unAmerican, unless it’s the top doing it to the bottom, then it’s all-American.
pennywit
Muslims/Arabs in general. The rhetoric seems a bit racist and/or over the top to me, particularly when we get to the paranoia regarding, for example, banks that make loans compliant with sharia.
On the other hand, the Times seems to have selected the most egregious elements of the movement that it can find.
–|PW|–
Googootz
It’s all designed to keep you confused and pissed off. To make you feel powerless. Because, if you believe you’re powerless to change anything, then you’ll just give up on the idea and let “the politicians” in DC, or the State House, or City Hall do their thang. Once in a while, they’ll through a “rebate check” your way. Or even womb to tomb “health care” so that even though you can’t change the corrupt system, at least you can get a piece of what’s your “fair share”.
Notorious P.A.T.
Should John McCain be receiving a $50,000 pension from the Navy even though he’s married to someone worth $100 million? Just wondering.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-pension22apr22,1,6562984.story
cleek
i’m sure the FEC will get to the bottom of that – right after they figure out if he’s abusing the public financing system or not.
The Other Steve
I have to agree with Matt, that he should be lowered into a wood chipper head first.
I must say, that is the first time I have agreed with matt Taibbi about anything.
The Other Steve
She may not have access to the money herself. Otherwise, why would she have bothered stealing vicodin from a charity she worked with, instead of buying it mail order like Rush Limbaugh?
The Other Steve
Did you guys see the one the other day about how he’s been using a jet owned by his wife to fly around the country, and getting discount airfare as a result?
Right here in the Times
It lowered his campaign travel expenses by half in the latter part of 2007.
Dennis - SGMM
From the article linked by TOS:
So the straight-talking maverick, knowing that he would run for president again, wrote a nice loophole for himself into his own signature legislation.
grandpajohn
Well it also sounds prophetic. as an oldie of 70 who can remember back to the days of Murrow and Cronkite, and the media before it became entertainment instead of news, Just look at the last few election cycles and the damage done to our country and constitution that the MSM has been complicit in spawning on us.
Zifnab
The dude owns his own plane. You aren’t going to charge a candidate car rental fees for driving his own car. This is completely legit. Rich people have an advantage. Boo-hoo.
I call bullshit on this, at least.
Zifnab
This, at least, I’ll agree with. How many tours in Iraq has Matt done? What investigative journalism has he conducted on CIA torture black sites? How many hours did he spend researching the VA Hospital scandal? Did he get in the FBI’s face about national security letters? No? I didn’t think so.
Maybe Taippi is getting the cable news model desk jockeys confused with actual on the ground reporters. Maybe he can’t tell the difference between a newspaper editorial section and actual journalism. Maybe he’s just a pissy little shit. Who knows.
Glocksman
Actually McCain doesn’t own the plane.
His wife’s company owns the plane.
And as the article indicates, he did write the exception to the corporate plane rule into the law.
Her company is going to have tax issues over the non-deductible political use of the craft and McCain’s payments don’t even come close to covering the actual operating costs.
While not illegal, it does amount to using her wealth to subsidize his campaign and that’s something he said he wouldn’t do.
cleek
Drum’s also confused about the kind of person Hillary really is, in this one.
he seems to think she has it in her to:
that doesn’t sound much like the Hillary i know and loathe.
Paul L.
Did Teresa Heinz
-Kerryever release her Tax returns?Wikipedia says no.
So it seems that the DNC and Howard Dean are also hypocrites.
You are going to point out hypocrisy, you should make sure that your side is my guilty to being with.
Cindy McCain and Teresa Heinz
-Kerrycan release them together.Paul L.
Correction:
You are going to point out hypocrisy, you should make sure that your side is not guilty of it to being with.
Cindy McCain and Teresa Heinz-Kerry can release their tax returns together.
Cain
So basically, no story then. GOP hypocrisy is a boring story and not worth reporting on.
As for the whole plane flap. Personally, it’s a bit clever as the guy had no money for his campaign and was looking for any way he can reduce costs. I’m not sure if I wouldn’t have done the same thing if I had his ambition. You got lemons, you make lemonade.. if a little moonshine is involved so what? :-) He probably thought he was being pretty clever trying to run circles around his own bill. He probably thought that he had hte republican nomination sewed up at the beginning and didn’t realize he had to fight. Huckabee and what’s his face, Romney (man, I hardly remember him now!) really threw the guy for a spin.
Now granted it’s against the spirit, but we are talking about a republican so doing something above board would probably not occur to any of the republican candidates except for maybe Huckabee and Ron Paul.
cain
Dennis - SGMM
As was pointed out in the article and by Glocksman, McCain doesn’t own the plane. If he did, I’d say “Fly on!” He wrote the exception into the law to advantage himself. I’m sure that Cindy could afford to buy him a lovely Gulfstream but, like most Republicans, McCain wanted to have it both ways. The company pays for the plane and McCain gets the use of it at a steep discount. It takes no cynicism at all to imagine that the company also gets a tax break for allowing him to do so.
Brachiator
Sorry, dude. Teresa Heinz Kerry is not running for anything, so she has no obligation to release or disclose anything to anybody.
The Republicans made a big stink about John Kerry hiding behind his wife’s money. Now, typically, they want to shout all kinds of bullshit about elitism and class war and poor little John McCain just had to use his wife’s private jet to fly about.
The GOP stepped in the shit when they tried to act holier-than-though with respect to the Kerrys. If they really believed their own campaign BS, they would have the McCains release their info. But they don’t believe their BS. They just expect the voters to be saps and to eat up whatever crap they dole out.
Paul L.
Cindy McCain should release her tax records. But don’t act like the DNC and Howard Dean are the paragons of virtue. Because when the roles were reversed, they did the same thing.
Just like when the progressives who condemned David Vitter, defended Elliot Spitzer.
McCain has a history of that.
Rules are for thee, not for me
A.Political
Too funny John, I had chuckled at his little tagline for his archives as well a few months back.