Photo of McCain's first wife, Carol

[kskiska]

[Stephanie]

1. What happened there?

She waited for him, right? Then what happened?

[JI7]

2. from what i heard, he dumped her because she had gained weight

[Mz Pip]

4. She'd been disabled in an accident

while he was a POW. Then when he returned he traded her in for a richer flashier model who could finance his political ambitions.

The guy is a real piece of work.

[CTLawGuy]

33. and all these angry white feminist women are going to be voting for THAT

I think (hope) not.

[YOY]

38. Just the crazy cat women

n/t

[hamsterjill]

42. Excuse me???!!!

The crazy cat women???

What a tired, old cliche.

[YOY]

43. Any "feminist" who would actually debase herself to vote for McCain is crazy

and not in the Emily Dickenson withdrawn way or the Maya Angelou depression way but in the talks to herself and smells of cat urine way.

If you can think of a reason why any self respecting "feminist" would vote for McCain I'm all ears.

This is a Democratic site. We promote democratic candidates and democratic ideals. McCain is not for any of those ideals.

[hamsterjill]

45. I am a Democrat!!!

Just because I didn't like your reference to "crazy cat ladies", that makes me a McCain supporter?

This IS a Democratic site and I don't vote for Republicans, but I don't like the assigning of stereotypes either.

You completely misunderstood my post.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. She was in an accident and became crippled. He then started to cheat on her, until he

cheated on her with Cindy. He then divorced her.

[mac2]

10. Cindy is a very attractive woman and rich.

I saw her going into a station to pay for gas when I was AZ. Guess McCain couldn't help himself. He wanted to run for public office. Who knows what he and his first wife talked about for their divorce. They say she never says anything about it.

Many Republicans who brag about family values forget about theirs. Many in Congress are on second families. The media very rarely says much about it. It's like being a military wife...it's hard with long absences, women are attracted to power, etc. They're like older rock stars.

[Gore1FL]

21. attractive? If you have a plastic fetish

[mac2]

27. She was then.

She's older now.

[april]

40. she looks like cruella deville from disney

[april]

41. cindy does ....

[jhain]

36. Attractive

in an Ann Coulter sort of way.

[emilyg]

11. Sad.

[izzie]

19. I read that years ago also. A nice rich young wife was needed.

Or I guess that is what happened. I would also say that his life was not as it once was and one could understand it. People do not stay the same and I did read that she was not bitter about it. Maybe they both were just done with the whole thing. From a book I read he seemed to be off the wall as a young man. I think it was in his book.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. Before he left for Vietnam she was a supermodel beauty

She had an accident while he was gone and as a result she almost lost a leg and did lose four inches of her height. She walked with a limp and wasn't the physical beauty she had been when he left. She was once a model. Mind you, he came home with a limp and wasn't the same person either. However, he began cheating on her and in the end married a woman he'd been having an affair with, Cindy Hensley.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. There's a sad story.

:(

[whistle]

12. Not sad, just cruel and unfaithful...John McCain was a complete asshole

...and remains an asshole

[Lone_Star_Dem]

18. He's an asshole for sure

However, I've always felt sad for his first wife Carol. She was delivered an especially sharp slap to the face by McCain. His lack of respect and human decency for her is worthy of some of my sympathy.

[Muttocracy]

6. How about a McCain/Gingrich lousy to wives ticket? nt

[BrklynLib at work]

35. Perfect! So many of the repukes have had affairs and divorces that it is amazing that they can even

say the words "Family Values" witout being hit by lightning.

[TexasObserver]

7. He dumped her to marry Cindy, his current wife.

[whistle]

8. Republican family values

<snip>
McCain's Divorce
Before John McCain's tour of duty in Vietnam, he married Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia. On his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam in 1967, McCain was shot down and captured.
While he was imprisoned, Carol was in an auto wreck (1969), thrown through her car's windshield and left seriously injured. Despite her injures, she 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.

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. The accident "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she had gained a good deal of weight."

Yearning to make the grade of admiral, McCain enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. and underwent physical therapy in order to fly again. The Navy excused his permanent disabilities and reinstated him to flight status, effectively positioning him for promotion.

In his book, The Nightingale's Song, Robert Timberg chronicled McCain's post-Vietnam military assignments and some of his "adulterous" behavior leading to his divorce from Carol and marriage to Cindy Hensley.

Timberg wrote, "in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather , since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path."

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs." Such behavior was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates..

Timberg wrote, "Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position "to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy's Senate liaison office. It wasn't long before the "fun loving and irreverent" McCain had turned the liaison office into a "late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind."

In 1979 at a military reception in Honolulu, McCain met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25-year-old woman from a very wealthy politically-connected Arizona family. Cindy's father, Jim, founded the Hensley and Company, the nation's third-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor.

<why more details on John Mc-Cheat here>

http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcaindiv.htm

[Erin Elizabeth]

16. Wow. I just read this aloud to my husband.

He just said "that's disgusting." She WAITED for him??? And he came back, rejected her because she was crippled, cheated on her, then left her?

Niiice.

Did they have kids together?

[grantcart]

48. go to the link and read further $ 1625 a month??????

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - John McCain gave up his interest in two homes and agreed to pay $1,625 a month in alimony and child support when he divorced his first wife 20 years ago, court records show.

[KingFlorez]

9. Another stellar example of GOP family values

[PufPuf23]

14. With his own war injuries one would think

he would have empathy especially concerning her faith in him. Why is it that social conservatives have such poor family values,such a narrow sense of family, and declare culture war on those different?

Rhetorical question only, I scratch my head in silence. lol

Oh yeah filthy rich wife with loose morals.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

37. Just think McCain was a POW for FIVE years, and he doesn't try to stop these bogus wars.

What a piece of garbage.

[kskiska]

15. She was a former model

While he was in prison she was in a bad car accident which left her crippled and several inches shorter. She never told him so as not to worry him. She'd also gained some weight due to her injuries, so he decided to turn her in for a new model he stumbled on in Hawaii, Cindy Lou Hensley.

[speedoo]

17. McCain's a scumbag, just like other rethugs.

K&R.

[ruby slippers]

20. wow, thanks. I didn't know he cheated on her, dumped her, etc....

will make a great Youtube video. Thanks for the picture....

[papapi]

22. I think he waited all of a month after the divorce to marry Sindy.

[ruby slippers]

23. I hear they have a pre-nup......

and did you see the way Bush kissed her on the tarmac?

[jillan]

24. She was too good for him.

[MilesColtrane]

25. Those fingers look like Nosferatu fingers.

100 years in Iraq my friends....blah, blah, blah!

[briv1016]

26. As much as I would love to rip McCain apart on this

I think we need to take a queue from Obama and recognize this for what it really is; a wedge issue. The fact that McCain is a scumbag is not going to bring back jobs from overseas, it’s not going to lower gas prices, and it’s not going to end the war in Iraq. (Though I must admit that if he brings up the sanctity of marriage, it will be very hard to contain myself.)

Unfortunately, we need to let it go.

[Olney Blue]

30. I agree with you. There is always more to a story like this that we can't know.

[liberaldem4ever]

31. I don't think that it's a campaign issue

But to me personally, some one who would do that doesn't have the character to be President.

[eridani]

32. Obama certainly should not bring it up

That doesn't mean the blogosphere can't get down and dirty. I say we only do it if McSame does the culture warrior thing, though.

[high density]

28. So is there some reason why Fox News isn't focused on McCain's past with women?

I mean for such a fair and balanced, unbiased company to ignore such a thing. If Barack Obama had a similar thing, they would be filling the Fox broadcast network by now with primetime specials about it.

[greguganus]

29. Is Carol still living? If so, anyone know what she's doing and where she lives? n/t

[kskiska]

39. She's still around

(snip)

McCain, 63, gave her his interest in homes in Alexandria, Va., and South Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., according to records of the divorce settlement obtained by The Associated Press and other newspapers.

The Arizona senator agreed to give her their furnishings, $1,325 a month in alimony, $300 in child support. He also agreed to pay an additional $500 monthly if she couldn't find a job.

She was subsequently employed in the Reagan White House, according to George "Bud" Day, McCain's attorney during the divorce. Day also was one McCain's cellmates when they were prisoners of war in Vietnam.

Carol McCain, who has remained friendly with her former husband, did not immediately return a phone call to her Virginia home Thursday seeking comment.

more…
http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcaindiv.htm

[IsItJustMe]

34. Is McCain running on the religious right family values platform this election. The hypocrisy of the

religious right and the Republican party is profound.

[malik flavors]

44. So he cheated on this one with his current wife, and cheated on his current wife with that lobbyist

No wonder the religious right doesn't care for him.

[Chiyo-chichi]

46. He doesn't always recognize his current wife.

Check it out: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x133971

[Imagevision]

47. Baptist Minister Asks McCain: "Did You Call Your Wife A C**t?"

At a town hall forum in Iowa, Sen. John McCain was asked about a story from Cliff Schecter's controversial recent book, The Real McCain, which alleges that during a 1992 campaign stop, McCain angrily called his wife a "trollop" and a "c**t" in front of aides and reporters.

"A guy who would call his wife a trollop and a c--t just because she had ruffled his hair in front of five guys is not only a jerk, but a dangerous hothead if he ever gets his finger on the button."

"And since the mainstream media has decided to give McCain a free pass, I decided to stand up and, if they gave me an open mike, ask the question that the press refuses to touched. Our country is in a serious crisis after nearly eight years of Bush, and America appears to be oblivious to the danger this guy (McCain) poses to our country."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/01/mccain-asked-did-you-call_n_99744.html