Excellent 9 page story: criminal source of McCain's wealth

Kudos to Brklyn Liberal for finding this Feb. 17th,2000, story and posting a link to it in a reply in another thread.

This article is so detailed re McCain's personal and professional history, and so powerful in detailing the criminal source of his wealth, that it should be read in its entirety, and bookmarked/saved. Please note that although the first page of the article seems complete in itself, there are NINE pages tracing McCain's ties to special interests (the liquor industry in particular - which shouldn't sit too well with the fundamentalist religious right) and the legislation he has pushed or blocked over the years. More importantly, it details the lengthy criminal history and federal prosecution and conviction of his wife's family for massive bootlegging of liquor in post world war II years (when the fed. govt. controlled prices and minutely tracked distribution to prevent bootlegging), not to mention money laundering, tax evasion,fronting for the mob, etc. over the ensuing decades. And although much was made of the political corruption in NOLA, wait till you read of the corruption in Arizona, at least in 2000.

My first thought was to question why Bush didn't use a lot of this info to attack McCain instead of focusing on McCain's wife's drug dependency or their adopted biracial child. But W couldn't do that because one of McCain's biggest contributors and a corporation which McCain supported so strongly was Annheiser-Busch, which is a cash cow for the Republicans (and a sponsor of all 4 of the 2000 presidential debates)and which tied back into the liquor industry & Cindy's family's criminal origins of wealth in bootlegging, tax evasion, etc.

The article also details how McCain met his 2nd wife, a wealthy, heiress/hottie, got into an affair, dumped his first wife and within 2 months of the divorce, married the multimillionairess, moved to Arizona, & went to work for her father. It was the American dream! His annual income jumped from some $45,000 a year as a Captain in the military to a joint income with new wife of over $800,000. And within 2 years of moving to Arizona, using her family's wealth, he was elected to the U.S. Congress. Back in 2000 when this article was written he was ranked the 26th richest member of Congress, out of 535 members of the House and Senate. I'm picking out 4 paragraphs from throughout the 9 page article just to give you a flavor of the breadth and depth of this outstanding piece of investigative reporting.

Keep in mind that this article was written in 2000.


www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/2000-02-17/news/feature_full.html

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John Dougherty

Article Published Feb 17, 2000


From Day 1, Hensley money has enabled McCain to be a full-time politician, free from financial concerns. This story examines the roots of the Hensley fortune and John McCain's implacable bond to the liquor industry -- how it has enriched him personally and as a politician, and how those ties have dictated his actions on questions of public policy. John McCain's political allegiances to liquor purveyors and his father-in-law's interests are subtle. That narrative is marked by a pattern of patronage. The Hensley saga, meanwhile, swirls with bygone accounts of illicit booze, gambling, horse racing, deceit and crime. James Hensley embarked on his road to riches as a bootlegger.


**********************************

James Hensley's conviction didn't deter the State of Arizona from granting him a wholesale liquor license in the mid-1950s. The Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control turned a blind eye to repeated liquor-law violations at the company. State liquor regulators did nothing when James Hensley failed to disclose his federal felony conviction on a sworn 1988 disclosure statement to the department and the City of Phoenix. Today, Phoenix-based Hensley & Company is the nation's fifth-largest beer wholesaler -- a privately held business that 80-year-old James Hensley still controls. He built the Budweiser distributorship into at least a $200 million-a-year business, with annual sales of more than 20 million cases of beer.




********************************
(Murder of an investigative reporter who had criticized Hensley's long time business partner & benefactor, Marley)

Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles wrote a series of stories documenting Marley's questionable performance in appointive posts he'd previously held. Bolles' stories doomed Marley's appointment, forcing him to resign soon after being named to the Racing Commission. On June 2, 1976, Bolles was mortally wounded by a car bomb. Before lapsing into unconsciousness, Bolles uttered the words, "Adamson, Emprise, Mafia." He died 11 days later.


******************************************
(From the part of the article detailing some of the many bills which McCain as a Senate Committee Chairman, blocked from consideration)
One such bill would have forced consumers to pay a 10-cent beverage container deposit, as an incentive to recycle. The alcohol industry -- particularly the beer industry, which sells its beverages in individual units -- hates it. On January 28, 1997, the National Beverage Container Reuse and Recycling Act was introduced and referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. The National Beer Wholesalers Association identified the bill as one of its prime targets.The bill languished, untouched, until the end of that session -- and died.

to fault McCain for ties to the liquor industry.

The Bush's and Bacardi's are best buddies. Half of our Cuba policy is for their benefit.

nt

Thanks.

That reads like a crime novel.

"When asked this week on CNN how long the U.S. military is likely to remain in Iraq, Senator John McCain replied "probably" 10 or 20 years. "That's not so bad," he said"

Heads in sand
http://www.spectrumz.com/z/fair_use/2004/09_04.html

They always had great investigative reporting and were fearless.

I also clearly remember the Don Bolles murder.

Finally, I have never trusted McCain.

I hope that this article finally puts to rest the notion that McCain is an alternative to Bush and his minions. McCain is every bit as corrupt and twisted in his own way.

even if would have been his grandfather or father, most people will not blame someone for what other's did. The bills that he acted in favor of companies that are the source of his fortune is a valid issue.

I hate the attention to the candidate's marriages, but it is stunning that the Clinton's marriage is considered an issue, but no one speaks of Guilliani'a or McCain's. (Consider all the RW slams on John Kerry who was a second term Senator, whose wife divorced him 4 years earlier, when he met Teresa while working at the Rio conference.)

Had an affair with a multimillionaire, dumped his wife and married the heiress?


FAmily values.....

Dems seem to be either afraid or too polite to bring up the 2nd or 3rd marriages of the pugs. I'm not. We should be shouting this from the rooftops...fucking hypocrites. I had no idea McCain divorced his first wife for $.

Damn...I'd love to see those Divorce Records...I wonder who filed and for what reason. I'm sick and tired of the pugs throwing dirt at us and all we do is get out a hanky and wipe our faces. I'm ready to dig my hand down in the dirtiest mud, grab the biggest clump of dirt I can find, and throw it smack dab in the middle of McCain's ugly face.

After the stolen election of '04, nice is over.

much of the little that I've read. Glad to have my suspicions confirmed!

:kick:

He is a RW hack and a phony. I predict that he will not be a candidate for Pres. because he is showing his true self in bit and pieces. The public is slowly starting to see what an asshole he is.