McCain "Family Recipes" Lifted from the Food Network

UPDATE, 1pm EST, 4-15:

It took less than 12 hours from the time the media caught wind of Cindy McCain's recipe theft for John McCain's campaign website to scrub away the offending pages (screen-captured below). That's 12 hours more than it took Cindy to come up with the recipes... (In the meantime, you can still see the listing of recipes as it originally appeared on the campaign website through the Google cache.)

It also turns out that Mrs. McCain submitted "her" Passion Fruit Mousse recipe to the New York Sun for an article that ran on January 16th. Just like on the McCain campaign site, there is no sourcing other than McCain herself...

CNN (and TMZ) are now reporting that Recipegate was the work of an intern, and that according to McCain's campaign, the whole thing is a "low-level unpaid staff debacle."

Personally, I'm not sure how an intern can be responsible for messing up the McCain "family" recipes. Did the intern lose Cindy's recipe box only to haphazardly try to replace them with Food Network recipes? If only we could all steal and lie and lay it off on the unpaid help.

***

Original McCain "Family Recipes" post:

What will they call it? Farfallegate? The Rosemary Chicken Dome Scandal? Perhaps something with the ubiquitous Rachael Ray in it.

It seems that Cindy McCain, John McCain's perfect, blonde beer-baroness wife is about to find herself painted as the latest example of plagiarism on the campaign trail.

This past Sunday, Lauren Handel, an eagle-eyed attorney from New York, was searching for a specific recipe from Giada DeLaurentis, a chef on the Food Network. Yet whenever she Googled the different ingredients in the recipe, the oddest thing happened: not only did the Food Network's site come up, as expected, but so did John McCain's campaign site.

On a section of McCain's site called "Cindy's Recipes," you can find seven recipes attributed to Cindy McCain, each with the heading "McCain Family Recipe." Ms. Handel quickly realized that some of the "McCain Family Recipes," were in fact, word-for-word copies of recipes on the Food Network site.

At least three of the "McCain Family Recipes" (below) appear to be lifted directly from the Food Network, while at least one is a Rachael Ray recipe with minor changes.

See for yourself... and Bon Appetit (click on each image to enlarge):

Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Slaw

Passion Fruit Mousse

Farfalle Pasta with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms

UPDATE: The Cindy McCain "Family Recipe" plagiarism story, broken here, has been picked up by Politico. Wonkette and Gawker also covered the Cindy McCain recipe story. Even the L.A. Times mentioned the McCain family recipes.

Follow David Weiner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/daweiner

Comments

[RationalIsReal]

This reminds me of the episode on 'Curb Your Enthusiam' about the origins of the Cobb Salad when the character on the show falsely claimed his grandfather invented the salad and shrewd larry david investigated to find it was not true..LOL

[LostCause]

Whatever she cooks must be merinated in beer of some other sauce. Nobody was fooled

[kikiva]

Hey she's rich, she doesn't need to cook. So what?

It isn't like Michelle Obama putting down Hillary Clinton because Bill Clinton had an affair. It isn't like Michelle Obama not being proud of her country until her husband gets some votes. It isn't like Michelle Obama dragging Barack Obama and their kids to some racist anti-American church.

On the whole, I'll choose the woman who can't cook. Now that I can relate to.

[Tulka2]

I am standing for Obama, okay? I have to say though, i feel for Cindy about this tempest in a tea pot. All the times i have shared a favorite recipie and failed to say it was clipped out of a magazine, Yikes!

[rosal]

And I though she would be more interested in cooking bland foods. Does McInsane still has all his teeth?

[JohnnieP]

In the sporting world, they call this "Par for thecourse."

[LightningJoe]

I like Fallafel-Gate. Oh right, that's Bill'O.

----
Ahh!! TV!!! Ruuunnnn!

[turkeyfish]

Just more of the McSameOld. The closer you look at the mythical aurora surrounding these people and the more you see it looks like half-baked ideas stolen from someone else.

If McSameOld didn't hand out favors to the media moguls he wouldn't be afforded such favorable coverage.

[glesslib]

Didn't the lady steal drugs from the charity she founded? Lifting a few recipes hardly seems like a crime.

[turkeyfish]

I didn't hear about that can you elaborate?

[Hope42]

From the Wall Street Journal http://tinyurl.com/3ucwkv :
"In 1991, Sen. McCain became embroiled in the "Keating Five" scandal, in which five senators were probed for ties with a thrift executive. The Arizona lawmaker wasn't charged with any ethics violation.
That same year, Mrs. McCain underwent two back surgeries, and she said she became addicted to painkillers. She resorted to stealing some drugs from a medical charity she had started and using others' names for prescriptions, according to news reports at the time.
"I was trying to be the perfect woman," Mrs. McCain said in interviews at the time. "That was the darkest period of my life."
The Drug Enforcement Administration began an investigation of Mrs. McCain in 1994, but she avoided prosecution by paying a fine, performing community service in a soup kitchen and joining Narcotics Anonymous. She had to close her medical charity.
"Cindy faced up to her addiction," Sen. McCain said.
Since coming clean, "I've never been secretive about it at all, because [talking about addiction] is part of the recovery process," Mrs. McCain said. "It's part of my life; it has made me a better person and certainly made me a better mother."
Like she says, she's..."a better person now". :-)

[NotWaldo]

Cindy McCain : “Sometimes I wake up grumpy. Other times I just let him sleep!”

[smallpants]

I gotta tell ya, the scariest thing about this whole campaign season has been that stepford wife-ish Cindy McCain. That lady gives me the willies.

[JackDanielsBlack]

Ask yourself this -- who would you rather have sex with, Cindy McCain or Hillary Clinton? I know who I'd pick.

[Hirsh]

I don't

[JessWonderin]

What does that have to do with it? You need to go out where people are - more often . . . .

[glesslib]

Well, I am sure the lucky winner is pinching herself.

[glesslib]

And the good sisters, who you like to mention in your many posts, would remind you that coveting your neighbor's wife, even some politician's wife, is an occasion of sin.

Say 3 Hail Marys and change the subject.

[turkeyfish]

Who worries about sin any more? Thats old politics.

The republikan party now bases is entire existence on the belief in the 9 commandments. They always leave out the one about "not bearing false witness".

[MiraMcB]

Get real, People! When do you think was the last time Cindy McCain was actually in a kitchen cooking anything? And who even cares? I'm not a McCain fan, by any means, but this is STUPID. So they decided to do something fuzzy and homey on their web site and put up a bunch of recipes... Squillions of average janes go to those web sites every day and pull off the same recipes. THAT'S why they're on the web! So you can copy them. I do it all the time and make those recipes my own... so WHAT??

But that's not really what's annoying me. What's annoying me is the GOTCHA Game the media keeps playing with ALL these candidates. Same thing in the debate last night. Why are we not discussing IMPORTANT stuff? Like the war, national health care, illegal immigration, etc. etc. etc.

I DON"T WANT TO HEAR CRAP LIKE THIS ANY MORE!!!!

[JessWonderin]

Seems McCain has not given us any "recipes" for military or economic success other than warmed up left overs from the Bush Kitchens of Hell - so when his "domestic' partner and FUTURE First Lady steals public recipes from the Food Network to pass off as "Old Family Traditional Favorites" reflects not only on the gross dishonestly of this group but the low expectation of the public to accept more lies from a RepubliCON.

McSame: Came in SECOND to Bush - Defeated and wrong in 2000, what makes him BETTER today?

Is that "IMPORTANT" enough????

[turkeyfish]

It may be stupid, but as the republikans consistently demonstrate it goes to the character thing. This is an election about judgement. McSameOld ran out on his first wife and into Cindy's arms. Of course the attraction of all that money made it a lot easier to overlook the blemishes.

[mbh78213]

The recipe plagiarism as such is indeed ridiculous but it is indicative of how the McCain campaign works. The point is that Cindy is trying to appear as something she is clearly not -- Suzie Homemaker. Why even pretend?

[notMcNuts]

Typical Repuke---screw up and take no blame! She'll be perfect in the White House-God forbid!

[kato1]

Keith said it and I agree - those recipes look pretty elite! Blaming an intern is bad form all around. Once again, it's so stupid - recipes???? She says so little, she's like a blank slate. Let's not get caught up in recipes - how about McCain leaving his first wife (when she was injured and needed help) to start an affair with the tart - more food reference (Cindy)! No wonder he won't support the new G.I. bill - he must have something against injured people. You're hurt? I am so outta here!

[ann1]

The cookie monster did it!

[mairs]

At the very least they should have scrambled the lines a bit. Rewritten the procedures into their own words. I mean that was so damn lazy of them to just copy and paste. They're not even good plagiarizers.

[StrayTalk]

At the very least they should have scrambled the lines a bit. Rewritten the procedures into their own words. I mean that was so damn lazy of them to just copy and paste. They're not even good plagiarizers. I AGREE