McCain Benefits From Cindy's Wealth, But Gets Plausible Deniability From Conflict of Interest Concerns Because of "Official" Separation of Income

The McCains live a lifestyle made possible by Cindy's income and inheritance, but interestingly when that income and inheritance was given a boost by dealings with Charles Keating McCain suddenly became a simple pauper living solely off his Senate salary and military pension according to AP report at the Houston Chronicle "McCain also got connections from wife's beer fortune ".

As heiress to her father's stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal ...

... 

McCain is routinely ranked among the richest senators. But a prenuptial agreement has kept most assets in his wife's name. That arrangement served as a defense for McCain when the Senate ethics committee scrutinized a real estate deal involving his wife, her father and disgraced savings and loan owner Charles Keating Jr. McCain said at the time the separation of assets helped prove the deal didn't benefit him.

 Okay, if he says so.  Seems to me though that "straight talk roll" just became a gutter ball.

I love the story of his first campaign, where most of his startup money came from Cindy and her daddy.  So much so that  McCain was forced to give some of it back.  Our freshman candidate also learned not to admit that self donations came from himself and his wife, since spouses are subject to the same donation limits as everyone else.  Wha...?  You mean that mah pretty lil sap, ah mean spouse, can't finance my political career?

As it turned out Daddy and his company had office space, a copier and other things, but then those durn old FEC people called that a donation too, and that had to be paid back.  (Yes, that was when the Reagans were in the White House. Why do you ask?)

 So our boy Johnnie learns fast and tells the FEC that those donations from the "McCains" were really from his side of the money tree.  Yes, a man who was making a little over $60k a year loaned himself 177K and ended up forgiving himself about 93k of that loan.  Thank goodness Cindy could find pennies in her purse for all the living expenses.  Otherwise the family might have found themselves eating a lot of beans and rice or cheap fast food hamburgers and fries like their constituents.

tags: john mccain  cindy mccain  hensley  savings and loan scandal  keating five  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit