Let the Real Maverick Stand Up!
Richard J. Garfunkel
October 12, 2008 

The Make-Believe
Maverick: A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a
disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty!

I am not a frequent or even casual reader of Rolling Stone Magazine. In fact, the
only time I read it was when I was sitting and waiting for my car to be
serviced in White Plains, and then it was a very
interesting story about the last days of Jim Morrison in Paris. But the other day Linda brought me the
downloaded version. This revealing eighteen page story, which of course can
contain some editorially slanted perspectives can be accessed through the below
site:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print
(If you can’t open just Google the story!)

But one thing can be clearly seen and understood, John
McCain is not the person he says he is regarding his naval aviator career, his
unfortunate time as a prisoner of war or as a straight-talking maverick. There
are many inconsistencies in his story and with the persona he has crafted
through the prism that he wishes to be seen, and therefore supported by the
American public.

In fact, when one reads this biting review of John McCain’s
life and career, the terms affirmative action, old school tie network, erratic
and reckless behavior, fit quite well. Recently there has pushback from the
sycophantic supporters of McCain over the term “erratic.” They claim that this
is a “code word” for his age. Of course, from my perspective his age is an
issue, but it has nothing to do with his “erratic” behavior. After reading this
article one would not be in any way confused by that term. It means what it
says.

McCain’s personality traits were very well established and
apparent from early on. Whether it was his difficult days as an unruly, spoiled
Navy brat, or the fact that he was negatively influenced by his hard drinking
father’s ambition, or his small stature, McCain entered into the Naval Academy
as a “legacy” or an “affirmative action” choice. His reputation as a brawler
and a punk at the prestigious Episcopal High School in Washington did not obscure or enhance his
miserable academic record. By his own admission he was “a lazy and incurious
student.”  Of course his name allowed him
into the Naval Academy and by midway in his final year
he faced expulsion due to demerits. He was always on probation, and the only
reason he was able to graduate was through the direct intervention of his
mother. His self described “four-year course of insubordination” ended with him
being ranked fifth from the bottom of a class of 899.

In comparison the claim that Barack Obama was also the
beneficiary of “affirmative action” seems to belie the fact that he made the Harvard Law School’s
prestigious law review, was its president, and graduated with honors. He also
taught at the University
of Chicago, and the
esteemed Harvard professor, Lawrence Tribe called him “one of my best
students.”

Of course, McCain’s level of competency and education,
reflected on his record as a pilot, his crashes and his brash final flight that
led him to captivity seemed to fit in with his strange view of what he was
doing. Ironically, while on the flight deck of the Forrestal, awaiting his sixth bombing mission over North Vietnam,
an errant missile from another plane struck his A-4 bomber’s fuel tank. One of
the 1000 lb bombs his plane was carrying dropped from his plane and “cooked off,”
(exploded) causing a huge crater, a massive fire, and a “devastating inferno
that would kill 134 of the carrier’s 5,000 man crew, injure 161, and threaten
to sink the ship.” But it wasn’t McCain that displayed valor in confronting the
spreading inferno! He took no part in the effort to fight the flames or save
his ship. After escaping the blast, that task was left to other A-4 pilots
while McCain ran off and watched the efforts of others to save the ship on
closed-circuit television in the “ready room.”

One can learn much more about Senator McCain character
through his relationship with his first wife, Carol, who he treated with utter
contempt in the wake of her injuries she received from a traffic accident.  Of course, while still legally married he was
living for nine months with Ms. Cindy Lou Hensley, a Budweiser beer heiress and
a former USC cheerleader. In his memoirs he stresses that he married three
months after his divorce, but interestingly he was issued a marriage license
while he was still officially married to his first wife Carol.

It was the Hensley money that would support his first run
for political office. He found out that a GOP congressional seat was opening in
a suburb of Phoenix, and within a few moments of the incumbent’s official retirement
statement, the Hensley money purchased a home in that district, one of the many
McCain was to own. One later learns of how his future mentor, the former
disgraced US Senator John Tower from Texas, made sure that he was well taken
care of through his own private donor list. Through those associations he would
meet and become closely associated with “Charles Keating, the banker and
anti-pornography crusader, who would be eventually convicted on 73 counts of
fraud and racketeering” regarding the ill-fated Savings & Loan scandals of
the Reagan era. In the year before his Senate run to succeed Barry Goldwater,
he supported legislation that would have delayed new regulations on the savings
and loans. A grateful Charles Keating gave his campaign $54,000 for his
services. Today that would be equivalent to over $150,000.

There is much, much more regarding McCain’s support for
Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He called for the abolishing of the
Departments of Energy and Education. In 1995 he supported a measure that would
have imposed “a moratorium on any increase of government oversight.” 

He opposed the new GI Bill, voted to repeal the minimum wage
and opposed the CHIP program for government supported health care for almost 4
million children. One can read on about his efforts to deregulate banks with
his colleague the former US
Senator Phil Gramm.

His hotheaded reputation is well documented, and despite his
denials, three reporters watched him explode at his wife Cindy when she messed
his hair, and “needled him playfully that he was getting a little thin up
there.” According to these witnesses, he retorted, “At least I don’t plaster on
the makeup like a trollop, you c—t.” There are many more of his schoolboy
outbursts like the one directed at Senator Grassley, “No I’m calling you a
f—king jerk!” That one almost resulted in fisticuffs. He did refer to Senator
Pete Domenici, when discussing a new budget, “only an a—hole would put together
a budget like this.” There are many more of these outbursts and a number of his
colleagues have gone on record to say, “…that they consider him temperamentally
unsuited to be commander in chief.”  I
would say that those testimonials reflected a sense of being erratic.

As to consistency, McCain is consistently inconsistent. In
fact, he may be one of the biggest “flip floppers” to ever enter into a
national race. There are too many examples to list here, but by reading to the
end of the full eighteen pages one will learn enough about his straddles,
reversals, and hypocrisies to understand the “real” John McCain. Maybe his
greatest “flip-flop” was his promise that he would “raise the level of
political dialogue in America”
and he pledged to “treat my opponents with respect…”

Obviously we have been witnessing his hand-picked “pit-bull”
with lipstick articulate his real perspectives on this campaign and Barack
Obama. He may term himself a “maverick,” but I am sure that the Maverick family
of Texas
would vigorously disagree!

McCain's
just talking 'gobbledygook'
By Fontaine Maverick / The Rag Blog / August
31, 2008

I just got a call from my brother, Maury Maverick, who said that if he hears
that John McCain is a Maverick ONE MORE TIME, he is going to shoot the TV.
Well, my brother doesn't even own a gun, but I know exactly how he feels. Every
time we hear that use of our name, it is like fingernails on a blackboard times
ten.

We kicked around the idea of doing a web page but good old Monkey Cage has beat
us to the punch:

The Real Original Maverick

John McCain is running this new ad (see video below) touting himself as the
“original maverick.”

This led Jason Zengerle and Christopher Orr over
at TNR’s The Plank to debate whether Tom Cruise or James Garner is the real
original maverick.

In fact, the original maverick was Maury Maverick, the grandson of Samuel
Maverick, from whom the name maverick
first entered the American lexicon. Maury was a radical politician from San Antonio who served
two terms in Congress (1935-1939). There, he led a bloc of progressive
Democrats who sought to push Roosevelt and the
New Deal to the left. The press quickly labeled this group “The Mavericks.”
While hugely popular with the the many poor Hispanics in his district, Maverick
was far too liberal for the conservative Texas
Democratic establishment. In 1938 he lost the Democratic party primary after
being slandered as a communist. Maverick then went on to serve as mayor of San Antonio before once
again losing in the primary after being red-baited.