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WSJ: McCain had a date — fifty years ago

posted at 8:22 am on April 3, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Elizabeth Holmes has carved out a real niche for herself at the Wall Street Journal. The last we heard from Holmes, she breathlessly reported on the connection between Hillary Clinton’s schedules and the death of Vince Foster — by explaining that they showed no connection at all. She continues her beat at the No News Desk with a dishy take on John McCain’s love life …. from fifty years ago:

While McCain’s recounting of their whirlwind courtship is entertaining (“I kissed her to a chorus of rowdy cheers from my shipmates,” he writes) a far more salacious version appears in Robert Timberg’s “John McCain: An American Odyssey.”

During Christmas leave, Timberg writes, McCain traveled back to Brazil for a four-day visit. However, the pair was always accompanied by the wealthy model’s aunt or servant—until the last night of his visit.

McCain went to the model’s house for dinner but found the door unlocked. He let himself in and heard a voice call from the bedroom, “I’ll be right out.” When the model appeared, “she was not, McCain would later say, dressed for dinner,” Timberg wrote.

Wow! What a scoop! McCain got lucky — in 1957. Okay, okay, with a Brazilian model, which hits a little higher on the cool scale than most military-academy graduates, but otherwise, how exactly is this news? College graduates sometime have carnal relations with girl- and boyfriends, many of whom they do not go on to marry. If this is news to Holmes, she’s either 12 years old or needs to get out of the house more often.

The best part of the story (which is to say when it gets worst) comes when Holmes laments the fact that the Brazilian model’s name gets left out of the retelling. First, it would be rather ungentlemanly for McCain to give out her name, a point that escapes Holmes. Second, how could it possibly matter? Does anyone remember any Brazilian model working in the 1950s, for Pete’s sake? In two years, no one’s going to remember who Ashley Dupre was, and the Eliot Spitzer crash is at least a news story.

Normally the Wall Street Journal offers better-than-average editorial decisions, but for some reason, Holmes gets a pass. This wouldn’t even make passable amateur blog material, let alone a column at one of the most prominent news organizations in the country. Shouldn’t Holmes look for a job at TMZ rather than occupy space at the WSJ? That’s the site for celebrity nookie watch, although even TMZ would probably pass on this snoozer of an item.

Update: Jazz Shaw’s yawning at TMV, too, which is not to be mistaken for TMZ.

Update II: How does this article start out?  “So many stories, so little time.”  If there are too many stories to tell in a limited space of time, why tell this one?


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This really has to be a story that can only help him.

Mr. Bingley on April 3, 2008 at 8:25 AM

play on!!!!!!

blatantblue on April 3, 2008 at 8:27 AM

wait was the brazillian model a prostitute that charged $5000 an hour?

custer on April 3, 2008 at 8:32 AM

“In other news, this week John McCain saw his popularity spike to new highs among male voters aged 18-35…”

Harpazo on April 3, 2008 at 8:35 AM

ED

I wouldn’t be too smug -there is some smoke out there thats not 50 years old – and I’m not talking about the lobbiest either

Wouldn’t hoist any petards – McCains an honorable man who spent more than just a few years in the Navy.

Just ask Kerry how that worked out for him

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 8:37 AM

Actually, while the WSJ is conservative editorially, it has a liberal slant in the reporting pages.

jgapinoy on April 3, 2008 at 8:40 AM

If there are too many stories to tell in a limited space of time, why tell this one?

The other stories about McCain deal with political issues, and that’s just boring.

NeoconNews.com on April 3, 2008 at 8:40 AM

In that picture, McCain looks like a guy I knew in the Corps.

srhoades on April 3, 2008 at 8:46 AM

Dinosaurs have sex? I thought they just laid eggs.

Angry Dumbo on April 3, 2008 at 8:47 AM

Actually, while the WSJ is conservative editorially, it has a liberal slant in the reporting pages.

jgapinoy on April 3, 2008 at 8:40 AM

Not really. Especially under Gigot and the open-borders crowd there. Had to finally cancel my subscription after decades as a subscriber. Can now get the business news I need online anyway, so not much necessity for their product any longer.

JiangxiDad on April 3, 2008 at 8:48 AM

sorry. wasn’t clear. I mean it’s not that conservative editorially any longer.

JiangxiDad on April 3, 2008 at 8:49 AM

This is worse than getting a BJ in the oval office…

Wade on April 3, 2008 at 8:50 AM

Big deal, the Democrats have been screwing us for 50 years…and we pay them to do it.

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 8:51 AM

This is an attempt to put him on par with Clinton, Spitzer, et al. Just another pol who sleeps around.

Although I do wish McCain would stop running around telling everyone how honorable he is. It’s just not … honorable.

BigD on April 3, 2008 at 8:53 AM

Heh…McCain with a Brazilian model back when he was a young stud?

Help me out here…exactly how does this hurt him now?

flipflop on April 3, 2008 at 8:55 AM

The media will use anything to try to make McCain look bad. Obviously, it’s not working.

They make themselves look pathetic!

becki51758 on April 3, 2008 at 8:59 AM

Young man, 50 years ago . . . all I can say is good job John.

Now, what idiot would find this newsworthy?

rplat on April 3, 2008 at 9:00 AM

This will only help him, but I’m not sure why it’s news.

WisCon on April 3, 2008 at 9:01 AM

any pics of this super model?

jp on April 3, 2008 at 9:08 AM

Impeach McCain.

Niko on April 3, 2008 at 9:10 AM

Big deal, the Democrats have been screwing us for 50 years…and we pay them to do it.

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 8:51 AM

The Truth hurts don’t it? A fine observation if ever there was one. Thanks for making my day today. I can’t stop laughing.

CAPT McCain just went way up in my estimation too.

Subsunk

Subsunk on April 3, 2008 at 9:15 AM

I’m impressed he didn’t have to pay! That’s better than I ever did.

LT Nixon on April 3, 2008 at 9:20 AM

So long as he doesn’t push this abstinence before marriage garbage, I don’t see a problem.

freevillage on April 3, 2008 at 9:20 AM

Yup, McCain will be good with foreign affairs! (rimshot)

Seriously though, this would have only been a story if he hadn’t got any as I’m sure all of his other shipmates had at least one rendevous…these were sailors after all!

SPCOlympics on April 3, 2008 at 9:26 AM

I love watching the MSM grasping for straws.

THE CHOSEN ONE on April 3, 2008 at 9:26 AM

If you read McCain’s book that was released in 1999 or so, he tells a very funny story about bringing a Miami stripper named Marie the Flame or something as his date to a party held by fellow Navy officers and their wives….in the late 60s.

I’m an AF officer’s wife, and I can tell you that it would freak most of the wives out now….but the military culture of the 1960s was very staid, white gloves to go see the general or admiral’s wife, that kind of stuff.

He was single, and had his “golden leg spreaders” which is what some Navy pilot friends of mine jokingly called their wings when they got them.

Men in their 20s like sex? Say it ain’t so! I think I feel faint.

funky chicken on April 3, 2008 at 9:34 AM

I too dumped my WSJ subscription a years ago and still have access to all their crap…the WSJ like FOX Newz as trended toward the Center and worse.

el Vaquero on April 3, 2008 at 9:35 AM

Tomorrow’s WSJ headline …..

“McCain Dishonesty Revealed – Stole Cookies from Cookie Jar at Age of Five”

fogw on April 3, 2008 at 9:36 AM

ny pics of this super model?

jp on April 3, 2008

FOR SHAME, jp! LOL

funky chicken on April 3, 2008 at 9:36 AM

I think most people would give him a high five on that one. A Brazilian model, and she was probably taller than he was, too. Well played, Senator McCain.

doppelganglander on April 3, 2008 at 9:37 AM

There is, for instance the time McCain, on leave from the U.S. Naval Academy, went to visit his latest girlfriend in a classy suburb of Philadelphia. After knocking back a few too many at the train station, he collapsed drunk through the screen door of her parents house. Or the time during his pilot training in Pensacola when he dated a stripper called “Marie, the Flame of Florida.” Marie shocked the polite society of his married officer friends and their wives by pulling a switchblade out of her purse and cleaning her nails. Or, in a far more serious vein, the time when, as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, McCain attempted to hang himself with his shirt.
In a culture where most politicians scurry to minimize any hint of behavior that might be deemed scandalous, McCain reminds you of the Seinfeld episode in which George resolves to do “the opposite.” He offers up his youthful indiscretions in detail and without feigned regret. He’s proud of the bashes he threw, the babes he bedded, and the stunts he pulled. But McCain’s purpose in sharing all this isn’t, or isn’t merely, to boast. It’s to paint a truthful portrait of his earlier life, before he was transformed by his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Like many political reporters, I have long admired McCain for his extraordinary frankness and independence. After reading his gripping book, I’m more convinced than ever that his abnormal honesty isn’t a calculated strategy for winning over the press. It has that effect, of course, but it’s the authentic expression of a remarkable personality.
McCain’s story has been told well before, namely by Robert Timberg in The Nightingale’s Song, a 1995 book about five Naval Academy graduates. (The sections on McCain have been culled for a separate paperback, just issued, entitled John McCain: An American Odyssey.)

Damn, young military fellows sometimes drink too much and enjoy the company of fast women? There go all my illusions…. (puhleeze)

funky chicken on April 3, 2008 at 9:43 AM

John McCain’s father and grandfather, John Sidney McCain Jr. and Sr., were distinguished naval officers who rose to become four-star admirals. As men, Senator McCain indicates, they fell far short of sainthood. They drank, gambled and swore like, well, sailors. But both understood what being an officer meant. The McCain men were fiercely devoted to an unwritten code of military honor. An officer, McCain explains, “keeps his word, whatever the cost. He must not shirk his duties no matter how difficult or dangerous they are. His life is ransomed to his duty. An officer must trust his fellow officers, and expect their trust in return. He must not expect others to bear what he will not.”
At the U.S. Naval Academy, McCain the youngest followed in his grandfather’s and father’s rascally steps by performing poorly as a student and chafing under the hazing that “plebes” were expected to accept. “I resisted not by refusing the hazing but by letting my resentment show, and by failing to conform fully to the convention of the squared-away midshipman,” he writes. “… I wanted the lords of the first and second class to know my compliance was grudging and in no way implied respect for them.” Constantly breaking the rules and provoking his instructors, he nearly “bilged out,” but managed to hang on, graduating fifth from the bottom of his class in 1958.

funky chicken on April 3, 2008 at 9:45 AM

Although I do wish McCain would stop running around telling everyone how honorable he is. It’s just not … honorable.

BigD on April 3, 2008 at 8:53 AM

You say dating the Brazilian model was not honorable…at least he has an understanding of foreign affairs.
And I am sure the honorable thing to have done; was let you in on the action.

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 9:46 AM

Wouldn’t hoist any petards…

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 8:37 AM

I’m curious as to what you think a petard is?

ronsfi on April 3, 2008 at 9:52 AM

Am I given to understand that young John McCain had sexual relations with a woman who was not his wife? To that I can only say, Bravo, John.

A young military officer bedding a hot young number; John McCain is the new JFK!

rbj on April 3, 2008 at 9:54 AM

I wonder why the story wasn’t considered to be “a private matter” and “it’s only sex.” Oh, yeah, it was about a Republican.

William Teach on April 3, 2008 at 9:58 AM

If the Brazilian model is still alive, will she sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” for McCain in 2009? Although she might no longer look like Marilyn Monroe!

Seriously, folks, is a 51-year-old maybe-one-night-stand really going to hurt McCain’s chances of being President?
The “affairs” of John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton were much more recent when they were elected President, and even the great Ronald Reagan had been divorced and re-married (as is John McCain).

Steve Z on April 3, 2008 at 10:17 AM

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 9:46 AM

foreign affairs, g1…

JustTruth101 on April 3, 2008 at 10:26 AM

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 9:46 AM

foreign affairs, g1…

JustTruth101 on April 3, 2008 at 10:26 AM

Yup, McCain will be good with foreign affairs! (rimshot)

Seriously though, this would have only been a story if he hadn’t got any as I’m sure all of his other shipmates had at least one rendevous…these were sailors after all!

SPCOlympics on April 3, 2008 at 9:26 AM

I stole it from SPC…it was too good not to use again.

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 10:37 AM

ronsfi

Hoist by your own petard

Meaning

Injured by the device that you intended to use to injure others

Wouldn’t ridicule the media when this could just be the hook establishing that there is a bimbo chain

McCain wrote he was not faithful to his wife not disclosing which one it was

Cindy McCain: The Homewrecker -OR- John McCain: The Unfaithful
20 February 2008

I was listening to something Cindy McCain said yesterday and it got me to thinking. I wonder how many republicans realize some things…about the person and spouse they are nominating to be president and first lady.

1. That Cindy was the younger one John McCain was cheating on his then wife, Carol, with before his divorce.
2. That Carol waited for John to return from war for 5 years
3. That Carol was in a car wreck but wouldn’t allow John to find out because he was at war
4. That John McCain dumped his loyal wife Carol and married Cindy a month later
5. That Cindy Hensley and John McCain both lied to each other about their ages when they first met in Hawaii. Lying is a convenience for them both since they both did it when no one was looking.
6. John McCain and Cindy are 18 years difference (dump the faithful wife who waited, go for the young rich hottie)
7. From “The Nightengales Song” by Robert Timberg, “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.”

joe @ 09:04 | comments(1) Views: 451| Permanent link

You know the divorce records are going to be unsealed and its going to be painful

He has also had many affairs

http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter5.html

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 11:03 AM

Can’t everyone see what this could lead to. The next thing you might have is a President who finds unusual ways to keep his cigars moist in the Oval Office. Then who knows, he might even think it’s O.K. to lie under oath since it’s only about sex. Never mind, that’s too far fetched.

TooTall on April 3, 2008 at 11:21 AM

He has also had many affairs
EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 11:03 AM

Even for you this was a low class post…on second thought it does fit you.
Bimbo eruption…Cheating on someone he was separated from, marrying someone younger, dump the wife (where they had been separated) I repeated it because you had to repeat it, it was soooo baaaad, rumors “true or not” so they must be true.
Let’s see what kind of man he is:

McCain has never denied that his personal life has a messy chapter. He always has taken responsibility for his divorce…

Well, he doesn’t run from the truth. So let’s see what his ex-wife Carol says, she may know more then Eric:

“I’m crazy about John McCain and I love him to pieces,” Carol McCain told the New York Times, “but I’m just not going to do interviews.”

Well, looks like the “bad” guy, ain’t so nefarious after all…the tabloids are looking for writers, you should apply.

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 11:37 AM

A military man dating furriners in a furrin country!? Without a background security check? She could have been a spy. There go McCain’s national security credentials.
/MSM spin

eeyore on April 3, 2008 at 11:40 AM

r2r

He had many affair so sayeth John McCain in an interview in Arizona

The only low class is a man who cheats repeatedly on his wives

Getting mad at me for pointing out the bloody obvious sin’t going to….

like the old joke goes whats the difference between a lightbulb and a pregnant woman

????

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 11:45 AM

He also wrote it in his unsold book

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 11:46 AM

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 11:45 AM

If you can’t see the difference between dating when you are separated, and living with the wife. Then that is where we part. I will assume his wife Carol has no problem, since she has stated that. Why are you so insistent in telling Carol that she is wrong? She had no problem with it, the marriage was, as far as she was concerned, over.
Look what his ex-wife has to say about him, she has no ill will…why do you create something that is not there? No party was harmed, or felt harmed. You are creating something that does not exist, hence the tabloid comment.
And once again, where did he “cheat repeatedly” on his wife. When separated from Cathy, he dated Cindy. Once again, Cathy does not feel “cheated” on, and she would be the party that would have the best perspective.
Apparently you do not understand the word “separated” when it comes to marriage, Carol and John did.
So once again, you are making stories up (from 15 years ago)…repeatedly, as you like to say.

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 12:04 PM

The only low class is a man who cheats repeatedly on his wives
EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 11:45 AM

No, I think passing of rumors to destroy a mans past is low class…and I think telling people he cheated, when his separated wife does not, is low class. The person who determines the damage (in these cases), is the person who is harmed…and in this case, now one was harmed…15 years ago. You weren’t part of that family dynamics were you??? So you have to rely on Carol’s interpretation don’t you???
And you keep saying “wives”, is that your low class way of saying he cheated on many wives???

For the AP to place Cindy McCain, for whom there isn’t a shred of proof is married to a cheating husband, is quite misleading. The other wives that the AP mentioned stood beside husbands who they knew were cheaters, liars, and cads. Yet, Cindy McCain is standing next to her husband who is innocent of those charges…

Even the original New York Times story detailing the tale of John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman does not come right out and say that there was a sexual relationship between the two, only that McCain’s aides worried about the impression that there was such a relationship.

Gee, looks like even the NYT can’t back you up…
Could you show me the links about the many “wives” he cheated on.
ooops…guess you just made a mistake, besmearing another man…sound a little low class to me.

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 12:20 PM

r2r

first – there’s no such thing as “dating” while you are seperated (its called cheating then whitewashing)

Second – John McCain said “I cheated several times on my wife when I returned from Nam” Like until the early 80’s?

Third – I said not the lobbiest there are others John McCain himself has SAID SO

MY SOURCE IN JOHN McCAIN WHO WROTE ABOUT IT IN HIS BIO

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 1:04 PM

Having AN AFFAIR FOR 5 YEARS FALLS UNDER REPEATEDLY

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 1:05 PM

Even his cellmate in Vietnam couldn’t defend McCain’s behavior

He lost everything

The houses

The Custody

Pratically paid his whole salary at the time in Child Support, Alimony etc

Look argue with someone who doesn’t have facts – making light of people digging into McCains infidelty is about as smart as Gary Hart telling the press to follow him

McCain Divorce Settlement Outlined
By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press Writer
February 24, 2000
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.

The senator and Republican presidential candidate divorced his wife Carol in 1980 when he was a Navy captain with a home of record in Orange Park, Fla., about 12 miles south of Jacksonville.

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.

McCain filed for the divorce, stating in court records that the marriage was “irretrievably broken.”

Under the settlement, McCain maintained insurance policies worth $64,000 with their children as beneficiaries, agreed to pay for their daughter’s college education and paid $3,005 in joint debts. Carol McCain got the family’s Audi, while McCain was allowed to keep a Datsun 810 and his personal belongings, the records show.

A month after the divorce, McCain married Cindy Lou Hensley, heiress to Phoenix-based Hensley & Co., the nation’s second-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor.

Carol McCain was seriously injured in a traffic accident on Christmas Eve 1969, but her husband did not find out about it until he was released from Vietnam, Day said.

In the settlement, McCain agreed to provide insurance or pay medical bills for additional treatment she was expected to require.

Way back when McCain was making a train wreck of his personal life he probably never ever dreamed that he would be the Republican nominee at 70,000 years old

Just a thought

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 1:13 PM

If she were a real reporter and wanted to write a real story, then perhaps she could investigate what my wife refers to as Chelsea’s Immaculate Conception… Now THAT would be a headline making piece of journalism!

Gartrip on April 3, 2008 at 1:17 PM

Gee, Eric, if McCain wins the presidency and has sex with someone other than his wife while in office, we promise to be really, really mad at him. We’ll even say you told us so. Fair enough?

I’m not crazy about McCain by any means, but the question of who he had sex with in the distant past isn’t one of my reasons for disliking him. Still, the things I don’t care for certainly wouldn’t make me e-campaign for Clinton or Obama. He’s our nominee, and he’s certainly the best choice of the three.

capitalist piglet on April 3, 2008 at 1:30 PM

Way back when McCain was making a train wreck of his personal life he probably never ever dreamed that he would be the Republican nominee at 70,000 years old

Just a thought

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 1:13 PM

You have an issue with his age, as well? So…who is your candidate?

capitalist piglet on April 3, 2008 at 1:31 PM

EricPWJohnson on April 3, 2008 at 1:13 PM

okaaay, so where are the plural wives he cheated on?
And the fact that the divorce was a “no contest” divorce, that is they both agreed without any angst. Shows what, that he didn’t fight her? And that is bad?
And that you have raised more issues about his first wife, then his first wife has is a little strange.
So you showed us a document that proved there was a divorce and that he paid his fair share and more to his ex-wife. And his ex-wife has nothing ill to say about him.
But you cap it off by saying he is 70,000 years old…my, my, aren’t we the great debater. You certainly nailed McCain on that one, he will have to change his campaign because you think he is too old, and his ex-wife adores him.
Now, where are those other wives you claims he cheated on, and the evidence?
I think you better quit while your behind…

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 1:49 PM

I don’t think that either Hillary or Hussein Obama would be smart to have their flunky proxies start throwing dirt about McCain’s personal life. Just the dirt that any well-informed public citizen knows about either of those Democrats ought to disgust any decent-minded person.
.
This story suggests to me that significant elements of the leftist MSM are getting warmed up to do their worst in the election campaign. (As in 2000, 2004) As much as McCain doesn’t want that; as much as Hussein Obama says he doesn’t want that, I suspect it’s going to get very ugly and very dirty.
.
The un-cooked polls indicate that McCain would beat either Democrat by 5-10%, perhaps more.

DavePa on April 3, 2008 at 7:30 PM

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