Being the Change we Want to See: Let's Not Trash Cindy McCain Over Her Past Drug Problems

Cindy McCain's had painful back and knee problems her doctors did not effectively address. To deal with the resulting pain, she started using--then misusing--Percocet and Vicodin. Like many others, she became dependent. She stole some medication, obtained some bogus scripts, and got caught.

Except for her privileged social position, much of her story is pretty standard. The first injection drug user I ever interviewed was once a reasonably successful blue collar worker. He hurt his back in a car crash, needed pain killers, and began the trajectory that left him a gum-mouthed homeless street user in New Haven.

Chronic pain is a common starting point for prescription drug abuse and opiate dependence. American medicine manages pain badly, and some unlucky patients discover special vulnerability to the opiate lure. Drug-seeking behavior of the Cindy McCain kind is pretty standard, too. I suspect that most of you reading this post agree that substance use disorders are mainly medical problems to be addressed through treatment rather than through the heavy hand of law enforcement.

Is it wrong to go after Cindy McCain? If she lets her husband campaign in the family airplane or has complicated financial and personal dealings, I think that's fair game. As for her drug problem, I have great wariness -- a wariness compounded by the comments that have started to accumulate below my posting.

Her behavior has put the issue on the public record. If this were not widely discussed on HuffPo and elsewhere, I would not have posted this comment. I do believe it is right and fair to bluntly ask Senator McCain: "Your wife became drug dependent, broke some laws to get these drugs, and was treated leniently. Less-privileged people in similar circumstances generally get much rougher handling, often under policies that you yourself support. What do you plan to do about this?" This is not to score shabby partisan points by rummaging through the McCains' private life. It is to hold the Senator to account for the shabby way our society mistreats hundreds of thousands of people with substance use disorders.

Incidentally, Senator McCain supports the "Addiction-Free Treatment Act," a particularly noxious piece of legislation designed to stop federal support for methadone maintenance treatment. Trainloads of studies find that methadone treatment, though imperfect, improves patients' lives, reduces criminal offending, and benefits the wider community. McCain deserves harsh criticism for this stand, quite apart from his wife's problematic drug history.

If and when we do discuss Cindy McCain's personal travails, we must do so within our own moral universe rather than to adopt -- preemptively or otherwise -- the take-no-prisoners view we associate with Karl Rove. Commentaries are accumulating that pretty-much say: Go after Michelle, and we'll come back with how Cindy the rich trophy wife is really a drug addict. I read the comment threads in one recent HuffPo posting. Some of these comments are quite ugly.

That's just not the way we should go. Liberals and those further left -- during the 2008 campaign and later -- must figure out how we can be angry, partisan, and strategic while resisting the toxic mindset of Bill O'Reilly and the swift boat crew. That's the problem with Keith Olbermann. He is not a gentleman, though he is sometimes very funny.

Graciousness is one secret of Barack Obama's success. I think there is a market for that. Americans are ready for Atticus Finch after eight truculent years of Rambo. At least I hope so. Let's start by showing some class regarding Cindy McCain's human frailty. Restraint may prove politically wise. If nothing else, it will astonish many people.

Comments

[AZM]

Take no prisoners.
In 2004 we heard what a wonderful guy George Bush (draft-dodger) was, while John Kerry, who served faithfully (heroically?), was portrayed as a villain. What that gave us was another four years of corrupt lawlessness in D.C. We need change and we need a giant fumigation of D.C.

[dawlishgal]

It seems to me that if Cindy McCain can go on national tv and distort and go after Michelle Obama's relatively innocent remark about national pride, then she has made herself and her past behavior into a legitimate target. Her appearance on Good Morning American last week was striking in its sanctimony.

A lot of conservatives firmly believe that Democrats will always behave more decently than they themselves are willing to behave, and that this is a weakness that will always operate in favor of their own candidates (who will have no such ethics-based reservations). You see them here on Hufpost all the time (admittedly less so lately), and they have a jolly time gloating about how they can use Bushrovian trickery to manipulate the gullible American public into voting for ANYTHING. For example, you don't see Democrats sliming children to garner the votes of racists in SC and then being proud that the tactic worked.

This IS a dilemma for decent people. How does one fight back against Rovian crapola and still retain any self respect?

[kikomnipotent]

Point. Rich white people get to have people feel sorry for them while the other 99% of drug users get to make the products that make them rich. Watch "The Last White Hope", a documenttary about the fed's and local communities' police forces abusing the system to keep scary black folks, hispanics, & stoners who don't vote republican in jail & taking away their rights to vote. Every time I hear something like this I want to vomit. When the President's cocain & binge partying history comes up, people talk in hushed tones about "youthful indiscretions", while working class people who smoke pot face prison terms for the same "indiscretions". The privilged class needs to be made examples of, & I wish the press would take the gloves off & smack the freaky looking witch to the ground on this one.

[kikomnipotent]

Arizona is a zero tolerance state, why didn't she serve time?

[SonnyBono]

I too am inclined to give Cindy McCain a pass until I see her on some talk show saying that "she has always been proud to be an American" - seriously a shot at Michelle Obama then the Christian charity part of my makeup that my parents are responsibile for sort of takes a back seat.

If she is going to dip her toe into the political pond, then she should be able to take the heat for her own character or lack of - she is an adulter (right wing neo cons - look it up, the dictionary or the Bible) and she is a drug addict and a thief. She also has a great deal of money and is married to a US Senator so she got kid glove treatment when she got caught. The average person would have ended up in prison and had their lives ruined so she should be proud of all the benefits that this country has given her.

If she wants to avoid mention of the past, she should stick to putting reciepts on John's web site.

[Goldie9]

Wrong -- Keith Olbermann is very much a gentleman and at the same time, he also knows how to speak out against the rabid dogs on the right, too... Cindy McCain's drug addiction is a personal matter, but her special treatment in our criminal justice system for stealing is something that the media should make all Americans aware of. Even though many of the right-wingnuts want that info squelched.

[PhDiva]

Nobody is trashing her for her past drug use. Many of us are concerned about her stealing and lying and the media's willingness to protect her from her past.

You write: "Except for her privileged social position, much of her story is pretty standard." In fact, it is BECAUSE of her privileged social position that her story is very non-standard. In fact, her privileged social position continues to protect her from the media scrutiny that would have destroyed Michelle Obama and her family if the situation had been reversed. Most addicts do not have personal charities to steal from and do not have senator husbands and extraordinary wealth to hide behind so that they can remain out of jail. I actually think that her drug addiction is an unfortunate, but relevant fact.

However, her stealing, her exploitation of her charity and that charity's employees, her lying about her rehabilitation, etc. raise issues of character. If Michelle Obama had this kind of history as a Black woman from a working class background, Barack Obama would never even have been able to consider a career in the senate, much less the presidency. It also reveals Cindy McCain's character that she would attack Michelle Obama for an awkward statement while expecting the entire media to protect her from her disturbing past. By protecting her, we are protecting extraordinary class privilege. That's much more politically disturbing than asking legitimate questions about her past drug use and criminal behavior.

[Anastasia]

While Cyndi McCain's remarks about Michelle were ill-conceived, let's not demean ourselves by engaging in in tit for tat.

Robert F. Kennedy spoke the following words, on the night Martin Luther King was assassinated. Those who have or who are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, deserve our compassion too..

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black."

"Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world."

[atp2007]

When I held disability hearings for the federal government I had to deal with many drug addicts, including those who got addicted to their pain meds and needed a constant supply of more narcotics. Cindy McCain is not just one user who got hooked on her meds and manipulated to get more and more. First off, this behavior went on for several years. During this time she stole from her non-profit agency and it was so obvious she was turned into DEA by a subordinate worker. Durng this time, she was also a mother who was supposed to be responsible for her children. Somehow John McCain seemed to miss what was clear to her coworkers. Before she was finally stopped, she did not just trick doctors to give her more, she actually got a doctor, who volunteered for the agency, to prescribe the narcotics in the names of other of her subordinates so she could fill the prescriptions fraudulently. This doctor eventually lost his license for the fraudulent prescriptions. Cindy went to rehab and got no punishment for her drug theft from the non-profit agency, illegal drug possession, breech of fiduciary responsibility to the agency, manipulation of subordinates, conspiracy to illegally obtain narcotics and write false prescriptions. She was not just a pathetic person in pain, she was a criminal and had she been anyone else she would have been a felon because of her criminal actions, not just her narcotic use.

[HAP]

These are good points. I must say I was not aware of all these details. But I still believe Anastasia above has the right mindset here.

[YogiBarrister]

Cindy McCain also blackmailed the whistle-blower. So let me get this straight. Michelle Obama writes a college paper saying she wants to help her comminuity and the rightwing smear machine is all over that. Cindy McCain commits a felony, and destroys a man's career and she should be given a free pass?

[FlyingEagel]

I completely disagree with you. If Cindy McCain is going to criticize Michelle Obama about what she says, Then she has opened the door to have her life scrutinized as well. I believe what she did is far worse than what Michelle said and she should be called on it. Maybe someone should ask her how proud she was of America back then.

[bangthegong]

Dear Harold

Clearly...you are correct in your premise...you've simply glossed over one important detail.

Mrs. McCain's trajectory never ended up leaving her "a gum-mouthed homeless street user" .

These people (people?) Mr. and Mrs. McCain are fucking hippocrites in the worst ways imaginable, and the they need (NEEEEED) to be exposed at every single opportunity...And... we we must look at every single opportunity as if it were a golden one...at this late stage.

No disrespect.

[SiberianRat]

I agree, Harold, and I found the comments on that thread alarming too. However, glancing at some of the comments here, your message has fallen flat with many. Just because the Republicans are vicious doesn't mean we should be. There are millions of families all over the country with drug addicted loved ones, and her recovery is her own business. I really despair sometimes when I see that Obama takes the high road but so many of his "supporters" take the low road. There's no difference between trashing Michelle or Cindy--it all is mean-spirited and uncool. Harold suggests we address issues, not attack personally. For some people, it seems that attacking personally is more fun and easier...sad that it has come to this...

[SonnyBono]

I have never heard Michelle Obama "trashing" Cindy McCain but I have heard Cindy McCain making those snarky comments - "I have always been proud of my country" - if you know of any attacks on Mrs. McCain by Mrs. Obama, please let the rest of us know.

My take and others is - if Cindy McCain is going to engage in snide comments like the ones she has made then she should be able to take some return fire - other than being charitable about not mentioning the drug addiction part and the other facts - is any of it incorrect?

[nostalgia]

Reading through all this post makes me sad. You guys have such a great and powerful country with so much envy from the rest of the world. Why do you dislike each other so much? Aren't you all Americans?
Is there any hope left for us, human beings? Are we destined to hate each other because we are different and will always have differences?

I would like to live with some hope...Somewhere rightly or wrongly I project my hope on Senator Obama.
Am I wrong here???

[SiberianRat]

I'm with you!!!

[Vixen0932]

I have a problem with this post. Cindy McCain was (is?) a drug addict and a thief. Bottom line, period. Even though she's a "pretty" , white woman, with money does not take away from that fact. I do not think Dems should handle her with kid gloves. Republicans have trashed Democratic woman forever and its time to return the favor. Plus I know that if it was Michelle Obama with the background it would have been way more blown up. Please Cindy's would have gotten a much more raw deal if she was black in that same condition.