America's Favorite

Repeat after me: Cindy Hensley McCain. Say it again: Cindy Hensley McCain. I don't know why but it sounds like Theresa Heinz Kerry to me.

I like Theresa Heinz Kerry. And I really like Heinz ketchup and I always wanted to write a piece about the 57 varieties of Heinz. Remember when that used to be their slogan. I always wondered what they were. Relish? Pickles? Baked Beans? I wanted to have a barbecue and test them all. Were there really 57 or were there really more (or less) and they'd just gotten used to saying there were 57. But I digress because the point is Theresa Heinz Kerry didn't want to release her tax returns. She filed separately from her husband John Kerry. And at the time that he was running for president, she resisted making her tax returns public. For a really long time. In fact, she released her tax returns on October 16, 2004, less than three weeks before the election. And we all know what happened to him.

Repeat after me, Cindy Hensley McCain does not want to release her tax returns either. Her father James Hensley had a big bottling corporation, the Hensley Corp that exclusively distributed Anheuser Busch, Budweiser, Michelob, many varieties of ale, and by all accounts left a small fortune. And Cindy Hensley McCain has always filed separately from her husband John McCain and she doesn't feel that she needs to release them, now.

I could say a lot of things about this, the sheer arrogance of it, the notion that there are two sets of rules, one for everybody else who's running for office and one for them, the idea that the first lady doesn't have a public responsibility and that the citizens of this country don't have the right to know, the idea that the McCains don't have an obligation to make all of their investments public....I could go on and on...

But I'd rather talk about the 57 varieties of Heinz. They don't use that any more. Now, they just call themselves America's favorite. I wonder when they switched to that.

Comments

[skip4Obama]

One of those flavors that the McBushes use is BULL HOCKEY....cindy McBush is such an arrogant tool and I shudder to think how she would represent this counrty.

[DennyCrane]

Yeah, let's the see the lazy media who seems to love McCain give this story the attention it deserves. The man is skirting finance law and his wife is covering for him. If the media did their jobs, they'd go digging. But of course, they won't cause they're aren't big ratings in someone's tax returns.

[pcplz]

When you have nothing to hide......you don't hide. Obviously there is something fishy or she wouldn't care what was released.....or she is doing just as her bully husband tells her to do. If she doesn't he may call her a foul name.......in public.

[doodlefarbe]

pcplz writes, "When you have nothing to hide......you don't hide. Obviously there is something fishy or she wouldn't care what was released....."


So, how much money did you make last year? How much did you pay in taxes. How much did you give to charities?

[pcplz]

LOL....am disabled with low fixed income......you??

Also, I am not running for First Lady. I have absolutely nothing to hide but am not relevant....she is and seems to have.

[newworldman777]

Have I disclosed my returns? Uhhh...no...but then again, I have made the decision to not run for president. This woman knew from the get-go (of her husband's run for president) that she would be expected to release her tax returns. When the time came to "ante up," she arrogantly refused to do so.

Why should we care? Well, the Republicans sure as hell demanded that John Kerry's wife release her returns in 2004. Additionally, we as citizens have a right -- an obligation, even -- to examine her returns, to ensure that no funny business, in the form of influence peddling, has occurred. Not that such funny business would have been reported -- but their refusal to disclose the returns certainly raises concerns.

So her husband is the one who is running, and not Cindy, you say? Well, if his endeavors are so separate from hers, then I wonder why he doesn't seem to mind utilizing her company's private jet, at little cost, to perform his campaign obligations.The McCains need to decide whether they should be a team, with John utilizing her assets to further his campaign, or they should be completely separate. Which will it be? If he continues to use her money and assets, then she needs to come off the returns. It ain't rocket science, "my friends."

[mommamia526]

S1mon, and doodlefarbe, now you have done it. You have really, really insulted me. Economics is my science. I took my degree in Economics, quantitative. Nothing pseudo about all that calculus and statistics, forecasting and regression analysis, frontwards and backwards. Now, but here is *da* problem. People want economists to be soothsayers and tell them what is going to happen. Only the *dogwhisperer* knows what is going to happen. But then, he only deals with one or a couple of dogs at the time. Economics used to be a science looking at facts and predictions in a closed environment, such as a nation. However, today, we have a global economy, rules, regulations and contracts have been cast aside, and we have global warming, with accompanying weather disasters. To name just a few things we are not accounting for. In addition, Reaganomics is not economics, but a relatively *new* *science* and we have been confusing this, and deregulation, plus increasing dependency on foreign nationals, with economics. No economist is going to *tell ya what you gotta do*. We will tell you, based on this or that, I think we might expect such and so to be the case, and we ALWAYS ADD; ON THE OTHER HAND....etc.

[doodlefarbe]

mommamia writes, "and doodlefarbe, now you have done it. You have really, really insulted me. "


Sorry Momma.

[SethBLiNK]

She's not running for President. She doesn't have to release them.

But if McCain says one word about Reverend Wright, I want to see her tax returns AND her recipe file.

[lwaxanatroi]

See, the thing about Republicans is that they stand behind their own. Theresa Kerry finally released her tax forms, not because Fox news was clamoring for them, but because other Dems demanded it. The Repubs aren't going to do that. If Cindy wants her tax returns quiet, then all of a sudden refusal to release will be an act of patriotism and every single Repub talking mouth will repeat that mantra. They won't fold. We fold like a cheap ironing board. And Heinz soup was way better than Campbell's.

[Economike]

Yeah but Campbells was the one Warhol used.

[mileage]

A double standard on this issue may be really irritating, but if Teresa Heinz shouldn't have been forced to release her tax forms, then neither should Cindy McCain.

There's almost nothing newsworthy in a 1040 form except total income, total taxes paid, and the amount given to charity anyway.

[sand252]

It is important for her to release her taxes because McCain could have and probably does make -- with the intent to keep private -- investments and numerous transactions under his wife's name.

Particularly when peole were crying foul when the Clinton's had not released their tax returns, and particularly since the spouse will be in the white house also, just like numerous affliations have been vetted, so too must the McCain's family's monetary interests.

[doodlefarbe]

sand252 writes, "It is important for her to release her taxes because McCain could have and probably does make -- with the intent to keep private -- investments and numerous transactions under his wife's name."

Actually, senators already must make financial certification disclosures relating to themselves and their immediate families.

I'm not sure how broad these requirements are - maybe one of the government students can help us out.

I know they have to certify no pecuniary interest by either themselves or their family with respect to matters coming before them under their normal duties, and this includes matters coming before committees on which they sit.

[tdpubs]

Never underestimate the capacity of the rich to screw the rest of us. It's habitual.

[JulieSA]

Two sets of rules? There is no rule that a candidates wife has to provide the public with her tax returns. A senator does have to disclose family financial records to the government to prevent any potential conflict of interest, which both McCain and Kerry did upon being elected to the senate.

I think the first time this demand to publicize tax returns was ever made of a spouse was with Mrs. Kerry.

[Stanley]

Leave Cindy out of this. Even though the bottom feeders think so, she is not fair game and neither is Michelle. Her taxes are her business. If it bothers you so much that it's not public info then don't vote for her. Oh yeah she isn't running.

[tdpubs]

Her husband is running for president. What if Cindy Hensley McCain has ties to funding Hamas? Wouldn't you want to know?

[doodlefarbe]

tdpubs writes, "What if Cindy Hensley McCain has ties to funding Hamas? Wouldn't you want to know?"


Reviewing a tax return will tell you whether or not a person has ties to funding Hamas?

And, in other news, the current cost of black pekoe in the Forbidden City hits 268/tonne.

[LAJonathan]

Michelle's would be fair game if she didn't file jointly with Barack. The Clintons filed jointly, the McCains don't - so that makes them immune? They are still married and the chance of conflict of interest is exactly the same, that's why people ask for them.

[SamThornton]

It's not the two sets of rules we ought to be worried about; it's the two sets of books. Don't forget, McCain's involvement in the Keating S&L scandal was partially predicated on investments his wife made in a Keating shopping center.

[Producer1]

In the Movie, The Manchurian Candidate, James Gregory's character blurts out "There are exactly 57 Communists in the State Department" inspired by his wife's (Angela Lansbury) noticing his ketchup bottle. Things haven't changed much in 46 years.

[HeresJohnny]

The issue here is the possibility of skirting campaign finance laws. What's to stop Monsanto from giving millions to Cindy McCain, with the understanding that it will get some favors from McCain down the road? Yes, it's true McCain wouldn't be able to use that money in the general election without reporting it to the FEC, but it would be available to him during and after his presidency, if he won. And because she won't release her tax returns, we'd never know. Any good accountant could hide that money from Monsanto's balance sheets. Maybe I'm conspiratorial by nature, but I see this as a definite problem, as it was with Teresa Heinz Kerry.

[tdpubs]

We're talking about Neo-Republicans here. They will do whatever it takes to win. Trust but verify, as Ronald Reagan said.

[dignityandhonor]

Rather than 57, I think a more interesting number is 2. As in, how many marriages does the candidate of the "family values" party have?

[mamacat]

As has been said before, the rich are different from you and me; they have a lot more money.