AP Goes Dumpster Diving Through Old McCain Records, Sandbag His 96-Year-Old Mother

I always recall during the Clinton administration whenever any unflattering news dating back more than a week came to light it would be dismissed as "that's old news" and the media would quickly bury the story.

But if you're a Republican, obviously there's no statute of limitations to anything you ever did.

Case in point, this absurd Associated Press item chronicling some details from John McCain's divorce from his first wife Carol. These lowlifes actually dug through some courthouse records from 1980 and then call McCain's 96-year-old mother to badger her about it. Then they present this hitpiece with a headline that McCain and his mother don't recall the details. In other words, they're too old and senile.

Classy. No doubt the leftosphere will be kvelling about this.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's divorce was amicable enough that he and his ex-wife jointly brought a lawsuit 10 years later to recover damages for lost mementos, but it wasn't amicable enough to prevent McCain's mother from suing his ex-wife to get back some personal property.

Both lawsuits were settled out of court decades ago and before they went to trial, but records of them are kept in the archives of the city courthouse in Alexandria.

Curiously, although the records clearly list the plaintiffs, McCain's campaign says that the Arizona senator didn't know about or authorize the 1990 lawsuit with his ex-wife, Carol, and that his mother's 1980 lawsuit was filed "unintentionally." And McCain's 96-year-old mother, Roberta, says she never sued Carol.

But others involved dispute those assertions.

In the 1980 lawsuit, filed shortly after John and Carol McCain divorced, Roberta sued Carol to reclaim some personal property, including paintings, a needlepoint screen and a pair of earrings. A settlement was reached in 1981.

But in a brief telephone interview, Roberta denied filing the lawsuit.

"I have never heard of what you're talking about. ... I will put my hand on a Bible," she said, to attest that she had never sued Carol.

Roberta's denial prompted laughter from the ex-daughter-in-law.

"Yes, she sued me," Carol said in a brief phone interview.

Roberta's lawsuit sought personal property she claimed Carol was refusing to return. The disputed items included an "18th century Burmise Buddist Preist (Burmese Buddhist priest)" valued by Roberta at $2,000, and a "Butlers Tray for Liquor" she valued at $225.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said in an e-mail, "Of course, by all accounts the divorce was completely amicable. After John and Carol McCain's divorce, there was apparently some confusion about belongings that were Roberta McCain's but we understand the court papers were unintentionally filed, and the matter never went further in the legal system. It went nowhere, and was of no consequence."

No consequence, of course, other than to try to embarrass McCain.

Could you just imagine the outrage if a reporter from, say, Fox News dialed up the 96-year-old mother of a Democrat candidate and tried to make her look stupid? Goodness, we'd never hear the end of it.

Is it any wonder the media has approval ratings on par with the Nancy Pelosi Congress?

Update: Typical classy response from an unhinged nutroots blogger.

I think that McCain and his mom make a nice looking couple. Maybe he should campaign with her instead of his junkie wife.
TBogg | Homepage | 08.16.08 - 10:51 am | #

It must really suck to be a guy like TBagg, going through life so consumed by anger and hatred.