The writer of the Don’t Tell the Donor blog is praising an article in The Washington Post that raised questions about Cindy McCain and how her addiction to prescription drugs may have closed a charity she helped establish.
According to the article, the Republican presidential nominee’s wife has openly discussed her addiction, which she received treatment for in 1992, but the consequences of her personal problems have not been fully explored.
“Her misuse of painkillers prompted an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and local prosecutors that put her in legal jeopardy. A doctor with McCain’s medical charity who supplied her with prescriptions for the drugs lost his license and never practiced again. The charity, the American Voluntary Medical Team, eventually had to be closed in the wake of the controversy,” says the newspaper.
Ms. McCain and the McCain campaign declined to comment for the article.
Ms. McCain has worked for other nonprofit groups since the closure of the American Voluntary Medical Team, including Operation Smile and the Halo Trust. Her charitable work was featured at the Republican National Convention.
The anonymous author of Don’t Tell the Donor. applauds the newspaper article for shedding light on an issue that he says Republicans have glossed over.
“I am just righteous enough to remind politicians that if they are going to brag about their philanthropic efforts starting a charity … they should be compelled to tell the rest of the story if it involves you getting your drugs from a charity that you put at risk,” he writes.
However, Jennifer Rubin, a blog writer for Commentary, a right-leaning magazine, says that the story was old news and wonders why the newspaper pursued it.
“Aside from the lack of anything particularly new or the absence of any suggestion that she plans on playing any substantive role in a McCain administration, you have to ask why?” she writes.
What do you think? Is it legitimate to raise questions about the charity’s operations in this year’s election campaign?