So says the US Veteran's Dispatch. Maybe we should be discussing presidential candidates who are breaking military ethics codes when they carouse -- because it DOES matter:
In his book, The Nightingale's Song, Robert Timberg chronicled McCain's post-Vietnam military assignments and some of his "adulterous" behavior leading to his divorce from Carol and marriage to Cindy Hensley.
Timberg wrote, "in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather [both were Navy admirals], since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path."
While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs." Such behavior was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates..
Timberg wrote, "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."
In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position "to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy's Senate liaison office. It wasn't long before the "fun loving and irreverent" McCain had turned the liaison office into a "late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind."
Republicans have a whole helluvalot of nerve running this POS for president while carrying on sanctimoniously about Edwards. Favoritism and effing your subordinates.
Not pretty.
And the following video offers some truths about McCain. At about 13:40, he admits to being a failure and breaking the military's code of conduct when he signed a confession and squealed to his captors, and at about 43:35, he speaks face-to-face with the author of The Nightingale's Song but did not utter one syllable of denial regarding the accusation that McCain effed subordinates - which, in my book, is an admission.
Interview
About the author:
Robert Timberg is a graduate of Annapolis and a marine veteran of Vietnam. He is an author and journalist and has worked at "The Baltimore Sun" for three decades as a reporter, editor and White House correspondent. He is currently deputy chief of the "Sun's" Washington bureau. Timberg is also the author of "The Nightingale's Song" and "John McCain, An American Odyssey. His book was one of Times Magazines best books of the year.
