McCain Hit on Affair, Military Record, by 'LAT' and 'Wash Post'

By: E&P Staff Talk about taking the gloves off. First The New York Times on Saturday resurrected the 1990s links between Barack Obama and former Weatherman Bill Ayres. Today, two subjects relating to John McCain pretty much off-limits until recently receive major treatment in two leading papers.

The L.A. Times looks at his pre-POW military record and finds three air crashes and a lot of recklessness (E&P linked to an article on this recently at Neiman Watchdog by Barry Sussman).

Secondly, Paul Farhi in The Washington Post probes the breakup of McCain's first marriage and what it meant to his career. Here's the opening: "In early 1980, John McCain was a man in transition -- and in a hurry.

"Nine months earlier, at a cocktail reception in Hawaii, he met a glamorous young heiress named Cindy Lou Hensley and, by all accounts, fell instantly in love. McCain spent months flying from Washington to Arizona pursuing this new relationship. Soon, the 43-year-old naval attache and his 25-year-old sweetheart were engaged.

"There was only one complication: McCain was still married." The article goes on to reveal that McCain told Larry King in 2002 that he was divorced at that time. And in his 2002 memoir he stated that he was separated from wife, which also was not true, according to legal documents.