McCain's mega millions Trojan horse is named Cindy

By M&C People Apr 4, 2008, 17:07 GMT

President George W. Bush (C) kisses Cindy McCain on the cheek while welcoming her and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) (L) to the White House, 05 March 2008 in Washington, DC. Bush will announce his endorsement of McCain for the GOP nomination in the Rose Garden after a private lunch. McCain reached the required 1,191 delegates necessary to clinch the nomination after Tuesday primaries in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island put him over the top. EPA/Chip Somodevilla / Pool

It wasn't that long ago that GOP candidate for President John McCain was crying poor, nearly bankrupt and slashing staff last summer.  This was before his fellow campaigning GOP rivals all all opened their mouths and inserted their feet, or fell on their swords, one by one.

McCain is not poor; his wife Cindy is worth over a $100 million.  For political reasons, her wealth is shielded from him, according to an expansive review by The Associated Press of thousands of pages of campaign, personal finance, real estate and property records nationwide.

The paperwork chronicles the McCains' ascent from Arizona newlyweds to political power couple on the national stage.

The power GOP couple's appearance at a recent NASCAR event where star Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined them is a snapshot of the couple's political and business interests, according to CNN.

McCain was the honorary starter of the NASCAR race that weekend in Charlotte, N.C.

Earnhardt drove the Budweiser car to honor the troops.

Budweiser is brewed by Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., whose beer is the source of wife Cindy McCain and family's wealth.

A Beer Baroness, she inherits her father's stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her rich connections helped him enormously with his political career, claims the AP.

The legal paperwork and various corporations, trusts and other income managing tools rich people use have kept McCain from appearing to benefit from her vast assets - thus sparing him the sticky issues of a possible conflict-of-interest.

It was after his second marriage to Cindy Hensley, the daughter of a multimillionaire Anheuser-Busch distributor, when McCain won his first election.

His 1982 House race landed him in debt. Personal money and Anheuser-Busch's political action committee was among McCain's earliest donors.

The CNN/AP-piece notes that McCain's 1982 campaign "gradually reimbursed Hensley for use of its equipment and Cindy McCain for her expenses."

The loans "caught the eye of the FEC, which repeatedly questioned him about them; spouses are held to the same donation limits as everyone else."

CNN/Ap reports that "McCain's campaign still taps Hensley assets: His presidential campaign paid at least $227,000 last year to a limited liability company in which his wife and children are invested, King Aviation, for use of its private jet, according to campaign finance reports."

Cindy McCain (and her children) among other things also own a minority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks, Anheuser-Busch stock; two condominiums along the California coast worth a total of at least $3 million and Arizona investments in rental medical offices and a parking lot, a two-story cabin near Sedona, Arizona, that sits on 15 acres owned by his wife's family trust and a real estate partnership in her name. The property includes four single-family homes and is worth nearly $1.8 million.