Spike

Digby already mentioned the breaking story about John McCain's strong-arming of the DEA to stop them from investigating his wife's prescription drug theft. Raw Story adds more to the case.

Tom Gosinski, a former employee of the medical-aid charity Cindy McCain used as personal supplier of Percocet and Vicodin, is speaking out publicly for the first time.

On Wednesday, Gosinski sat down with RAW STORY and other outlets to tell his story and distribute copies of his personal journal from his time with the American Voluntary Medical Team in the last half of 1992, where he voiced ever more acute concerns and frustrations over McCain's drug use and its impact on her mood and job performance.

"My journal wasn't to trash Cindy or anything," he says. "My journal was kept because I came in contact with so many people. It was a way of keeping an ongoing biography of all the people I met, so I could refer back to it."

He says he can't buy the official McCain camp line that Cindy's drug abuse was kept from her husband, he saw and heard too much for any of their stories to make sense -- like the time Cindy was allegedly taken to the hospital after an overdose and John rushed in to berate the doctors and nurses there before moving Cindy to their secluded Sedona ranch. Then there were the Hensley family interventions and the fact that Cindy's drug abuse came to be something of an open secret among employees of the charity.

There's a lot here, from Gosinski being fired and blackballed for knowing too much about Cindy's drug abuse, to Cindy getting a diplomatic passport from her husband's Senate office so she wouldn't be searched in airports with all of these drugs, and on and on.

It's a dense story. But there's another aspect to it revealed today by John Aravosis. Apparently, the Washington Post recorded an interview with Gosinski that they are hiding from the public.

Go to Google. Type in the name "gosinski." Look at the sixth result.



John Mccain abused his power to keep it a.... secret, perhaps? This isn't a story about the wife, it's a story about the Senator possibly using his office to obstruct justice for personal gain. Sounds a lot like Troopergate in fact. Definitely a story.

But when you click the link and go to the Washington Post's Web site, there's nothing there, just a blank template with no content.

I just checked this a second ago. It's still on Google, and there's still a blank template at WaPo when you click on the link.

This is a spiked story. There's plenty of precedent for this in 2004, when 60 Minutes delayed broadcast of a story about Iraq, Niger and yellowcake that would have been very damaging to President Bush until after the election. There are other examples as well.

This now becomes the scandal. It is completely inappropriate for the Washington Post to spike a legitimate news story about the corruption of a Presidential candidate, especially considering that candidate is running on this platform of reform. And all the other news outlets need to be informed of this as well. If there's enough pressure, one of them may see the tactical value in going forward with interviewing a willing witness before their competitors. If that's how the news business still works, anyway.

Some phone calls need to be made.