All my heroes have 'feet of clay'

by David Grand
February 27, 2008

And Sen. John McCain is no exception. For although I've long admired him for his extraordinary military service, his straightforwardness, his rebounding from the vicious, personal attacks waged against him in the 2000 South Carolina primary, I've found (sadly so), that in his second run for the presidency he has shown himself to be as chameleon-like as most politicians who place expedience's above adhering to  their long held positions on issues for political gain.

His flip-flopping on such issues as immigration reform, banning water boarding, and backing of business interests and conservatives on taxes and energy have all been highlighted during his resurgent presidential campaign.

But the one thing he has been consistent on is his unflagging support of the Iraq War and of the need for our troops to remain there indefinitely.

As regards his supposed affair with telecommunications lobbyist Vicki Iseman (as the New York Times alleged), that doesn't surprise me in the least. For he's been a womanizer and maverick ever since his days at the Naval Academy, where he was known as a hard drinking "partygoer," who with his good looks and ready smile attracted plenty of women.  (He'd even offered advise to his lovelorn classmates as to how to handle their romantic relationships.)

His classmates nicknamed him "John Wayne" McCain for his "rough and tumble" ways, and for his bucking the strict rules of the academy, which each year put him in the "Century Club" for students with more than 100 demerits. And he would've been thrown out of the academy, had not another friend (who had only 30 demerits) taking the blame for hiding a forbidden TV set in McCain's room. And scholastically he was a bust, finishing near the bottom of the 1958 graduating class. (But I don't knock him for that, since I was in high school.)

His first marriage didn't stop his dalliances with other women. As he said in confessing to his extramarital affairs (one of whom was allegedly his present wife, Cindy Lou Hensley, who he married in 1987): "The blame for the marriage breakup was entirely mine, due to my selfishness  and immaturity."

But setting his philandering ways aside, what bothers me the most is, to quote a recent Business Journal article titled: "Keating scandal flies under the radar in McCain's '08 bid." The Keating Five scandal as it was known refers to a Congressional scandal related to the collapse of most of the Savings and Loan institutions in the 1980s.

McCain's reputation was dirtied when he along with four other senators (Alan Cranston, John Glenn, Donald Riegle and Dennis DeConcini) tried to pressure federal officials to "ease off the investigation of Charles Keatin's collapsed Lincoln S&L Association."

Considering that collectively that they'd received $1.3 million in campaign contributions from him, they apparently couldn't resist selling their integrity and good names. (They were rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for "exercising poor judgment by intervening with regulators on Keating's behalf."

So perhaps you can understand why I have gastric acidity every time I hear McCain say on the campaign trail, "I have never betrayed the public's trust."