The Whistleblower in the Cindy McCain Drug Scandal Speaks

Posted by Kathy G, The G-Spot at 12:27 AM on September 12, 2008.

After a long public silence, Tom Gosinski, the whistleblower in the Cindy McCain drug scandal, is speaking out. And what he has to say about John McCain is damning. Matt Stoller's got the goods, which you can read here.



As you probably know, during the 1990s Cindy McCain was addicted to prescription drugs, and was busted for stealing drugs from the medical charity she ran. If that was the end of the story, it would be sordid and sad, but not really a political issue, and not anything that's especially damaging to McCain. Practically every family I know has been touched with substance abuse in one form or another.



But there is much, much more to the story than that. For example, McCain lied about when he first became aware of Cindy's addiction -- he says he didn't find out until 1994. But Cindy, who was consuming  up to 50 Vicodin and Percocet pills a daily, had overdosed in 1991, and McCain knew about it (he visited her in the hospital and pressured the hospital to keep Cindy's overdose a secret).



Far more damaging, though, is that, as Stoller puts it, "it appears that McCain used his Senate staff and resources to cover upCindy's drug use, and potentially to prevent the Drug Enforcement Agency from investigating his wife's theft of illegal prescription drugs."



Stoller sums it up:

There are lots of unanswered questions, but the basic contours of the story are clear.  John McCain used his position as a Senator to help his wife abuse illegal drugs and avoid being searched by customs, and somehow his wife managed to avoid any charges by the DEA or the state (which has mandatory minimums in cases like this) on drug charges despite ample evidence.  Did the DEA or the state not file charges against her because of political pressure?  Did they keep this on the Federal level to avoid mandatory minimums for Cindy McCain because of political pressure from McCain?  Did John McCain and/or his Senate staff tamper with a criminal investigation of his wife and her conspiracy to fraudulently obtain illegal drugs?

Whether illegal or not, and an investigation by Congress should happen, this is clearly a massive and overreaching case of both corruption on a personal sordid level and an abuse of power.  And you might be seeing Gosinski on mainstream media soon.

As they say, read the whole thing, and watch the Youtubes (Stoller's got Gosinski speaking on video). And be sure to email the link to all your friends. This is a matter that demands wide attention and a thorough investigation.



UPDATE: You can find much, much more in this newly published report, including allegations that Cindy was unnecessarily drugging her children with prescription sedatives. Wow!


AlterNet is a nonprofit organization and does not make political endorsements. The opinions expressed by its writers are their own.

Tagged as: mccain, cindy mccain, drug scandal

Kathy G Runs The G-Spot blog.