Political Irony

A week ago, NPR did a story on Cindy McCain, describing her as the only child of wealthy Arizona businessman Jim Hensley. No big surprise, as the same thing has been said of her by other media, including ABC, Newsweek, and The New York Times. Cindy herself routinely describes herself as an “only child”, as she did on CNN a month ago.

The only problem is it isn’t true. Jim Hensley has another daughter, Kathleen, from his first marriage.

Curiously, the story of Jim Hensley’s two marriages has some ironic parallels to the story of his second daughter’s husband, John McCain. Jim Hensley was also a flier and was injured in WWII. While recuperating (and still married to his first wife), he met another woman, who became his second wife.

And, of course, this isn’t the first time Cindy McCain has lied.

When Jim Hensley died, he left the bulk of his estate (worth tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars) to Cindy, the daughter from his second wife. As for his first daughter, her son puts it this way when explaining why he contacted NPR over the story:

The fact that we don’t exist. The fact that we’ve never been recognized, and then Cindy has to put such a fine point on it by saying something that’s not true. Recently, again and again. It’s just very, very hurtful.

NPR contacted the McCain campaign (and Cindy McCain) to comment or respond. Neither replied.

UPDATE: Turns out that Cindy has yet another half sister. I guess ol’ Jim had lots of “family values” as this one appears to have been born out of wedlock.

Cindy McCain also lied about talking to Mother Teresa during a trip to Bangladesh. According to the Christian Science Monitor she never met or talked to Mother Teresa.