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Hernando Today

Published: August 13, 2008

McCain's Integrity

John McCain was born Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, to two U.S. citizens. It's a common misunderstanding that the zone was a U.S. territory. In fact, the U.S. had lease rights, but not territorial rights.

The U.S. Constitution states, "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ...

McCain's father was a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy, as was his grandfather. Roberta Wright McCain, his mother, is a wealthy oil heiress - hence his families ties to "Big Oil."

Yes, McCain was imprisoned in the famous "Hanoi Hilton." However, he was offered early release because of his father's high rank and political ties to Washington. McCain says he considered it but declined.

Before his tour of duty in Vietnam, McCain had married a (much younger) model from Philadelphia, Carol Shepp. Shepp was in a tragic auto wreck, thrown through her car's windshield and left seriously injured and disfigured. McCain, having great political ambitions, believed his model wife no longer had potential as a future senator's wife because of her bodily disfigurements. While still married to Shepp, McCain had an extramarital affair with an 18-year-younger Cindy Lou Hensley, whose father owned Hensley & Co., the nation's second largest Anheuser-Busch distributor. McCain and Shepp were divorced in 1980, and he married his millionaire mistress (net worth $400 million) the following month.

Ex-longtime family friend, billionaire Ross Perot, says "he's always reaching for attention and glory. Other POWs won't even sit at the same table with him."

Most disturbing is Perot's revelation that McCain hushed up evidence that live POWs were left behind in Vietnam and even transferred to the Soviet Union for human experimentation, a charge Perot says he heard from a senior Vietnamese official in the 1980s. "There's evidence, evidence, evidence," Perot claims. "McCain was adamant about shutting down anything to do with recovering POWs."

Garrett Hood

Spring Hill

Admirable Traits

I just received an election ad from the elect Billy Healis campaign committee. Near the top it says, "I will bring with me servant leadership, honesty, respect and loyalty."

Heck, we already have servant leadership. We the residents and voters of Hernando County are subservient to the will of the commissioners. It's been that way for years.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to send Mr. Healis an e-mail at the address provided. Guess what? No such address exists. It makes me kind of wonder. Is this is an omen of some kind? Well, if it is, there goes honesty.

How about respect? Gee wiz, the county commissioners have respected the heck out of God only knows how many home builders. They never could quite hear the people they're supposed to represent, or maybe I've got it wrong. After all, it's the same way right up to the Oval Office.

Now for the last one, loyalty. Come on now, we can't say that the ruling commission lacks loyalty. They've been true blue and loyal to a fault. Yep, they've been that way for 99 percent of the people who possess great big bank accounts. If you haven't discovered it as of yet, in today's America, the level of respect and admiration given others depends on the size of a person's bank account, the car he or she drives and the home they live in. Oh, let's not forget the polo club or country club.

Anyone who reads the paper or watches the evening news must realize by now that things like honesty, integrity and loyalty to the people who elected you are less than admirable traits. Matter of fact, they continually get in the way of success.

In politics, there's an old saying: "If you want to get along, you have to go along." It's not just an old saying, it's a fact.

God bless Mr. Healis. If his ad rings true, it will be the first time since Abraham Lincoln. And, according to a few of the articles I've read, Abraham was a little shaky at times. Shaky on all those traits that once were revered as admirable, but today are considered as obstacles.

David Robinson

Brooksville

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