Cindy McCain Has Another Forgotten Half-Sister (so much for her only child story)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/20/cindy-mccain-has-another_n_120033.html

Cindy McCain Has Another Forgotten Half-Sister

When Cindy McCain talks about growing up, she usually refers to herself as an "only child" -- a phrase that ignores the existence of her half sisters.

"It's terribly painful," Kathleen Hensley Portalski said yesterday. "It is as if she is the 'real' daughter. I am also a real daughter."

Portalski and McCain are both children of the late Jim Hensley, the Arizona businessman who founded one of the largest beer distributorships in the nation. Kathleen, 65, is the product of Hensley's first marriage in the 1930s to Mary Jeanne Parks. Hensley divorced Parks for Marguerite "Smitty" Johnson, whom he met at a West Virginia hospital in World War II and married in 1945. Cindy was born nine years later.

...

But there's more: Cindy McCain has another half sister. Before her marriage to Hensley, Johnson had a daughter, Dixie Burd, by a previous relationship. Burd, who is much older than Cindy, could not be reached for comment.

I think they need to get that family on the stage at the Democratic Convention...:kick:

Why do I feel like Cindy's family is something you would see in Dynasty, or Dallas?

...but on the other, there is such a thing as being brought up primarily as an only child, even if one has step-siblings and half-siblings. I come from a family of steps and halves myself and regard family dynamics as extremely complicated.

What I do think we should demand is greater responsibility from people like the McCains and the Hensleys, who enjoy prominence, wealth, and power. John McCain has the cheek to talk about human rights for the fetus but doesn't favor universal health insurance for people who have actually made it out of the womb.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/29/ST2008042902873.html

McCain's belief in the power of the free market to meet the nation's health-care needs sets up a stark choice for voters this fall in terms of the care they could receive, the role the government would play and the importance they place on the issue.

Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) have vowed government action to fulfill what they cast as a moral right for Americans to have health insurance. They favor mandates for coverage; McCain (R-Ariz.) proposes tax incentives. Obama and Clinton would impose new regulations on insurers; McCain's plan is designed to avoid direct regulation. The Democrats would build on the current employer-based system; McCain would shift to a more individual approach.

"Individual approach" sends a chill down my spine. Get ready for more deaths, more bankruptcies, higher taxes (on your benefits), and more horror.

I didn't grow up with them.

Just certain aspects of Cindy's life (rodeo queen. beer heiress. recovering drug addict. had a stroke at a relatively young age. etc) sound straight out of a soap opera. Though I do agree that the Hensleys business ties may be relevant, but probably won't be an over arching theme in this campaign.

That's one I hadn't heard about.

But you just know how the GOP/RW blowhards would explode if this story were about the Democratic candidate and his family.

BTW, I loved the Onion's hillbilly half-brother story on Obama. :rofl:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/obamas_hillbilly_half_brother

"Kooky McCain Kin!"

:rofl:

I wrote a journal about this very topic, linked in my signature. Their family values are a joke.

a lot of money - and look who Cindy ended up with: a cruel man.

:puke:

so I'm sure she feels like an only child. But she does need to start acknowledging the children from her Dad's first marriage. Wonder why Cindy got all the money and they didn't though?

Nothing but a downright liar.

Liar, Liar,
Cindy's pants are on fire!

Although I have two step-brothers and a step-sister, I was raised as an only child. However, I will never in a million years disown them! When ever asked, I say I am an only child of my mother, but I have 3 siblings!

What exactly does this kind of spousal gossip have to do with electing the POTUS?

Is anyone really going to change their vote based on the wife or husband of a candidate?

Born April 18, 1953, according to a poster on Firedoglake: http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/18/clan-mccain-the-family-that-shuns-together/

Here's a Veromi Search:
http://www.veromi.net/Summary.asp?fn=dixie&mn=&ln=burd&dobmm=04&dobdd=18&doby=1953&city=&state=&age=&vw=&Search=&Input=&x=55&y=15