This Sunday’s LA Times carried an interesting column, “McCain may have conflict brewing.”
As the title hints to, the article deals with the possible conflicts of interest that the business dealings of some of the McCain family members–such as Cindy and Andrew McCain–may create for John McCain, should he be elected President.
While most of us know what those business dealings are–it rhymes with fear (no pun intended)–the following information did come as a surprise to me, and sheds light on why such potential conflicts of interest for a McCain presidency are very real.
According to the LA Times, executives of Hensley & Co., one of the nation’s major beer wholesalers (executives that include John McCain’s son Andrew),
Have written at least 10 letters in recent years to the Treasury Department, have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a beer industry political action committee, and hold a seat on the board of the politically powerful National Beer Wholesalers Assn.
Hensley has run afoul of health advocacy groups that have tried to rein in appeals to young drinkers. For example, the company distributes caffeinated alcoholic drinks that public health groups say put young and underage consumers at risk by disguising the effects of intoxication.
And,
The company has opposed such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving in fighting proposed federal rules requiring alcohol content information on every package of beer, wine and liquor.
Some political analysts, such as Samuel L. Popkin, a political science professor at UC San Diego, claim according to the LA Times that,
“You can’t run a beer company out of the White House,” “You can’t run any company from the White House. McCain is leaving a live hand grenade on the table, a major embarrassment.”
However, these gentlemen forget that McCain has already started to defuse this “live hand grenade” by promising to “veto every single beer” that comes across his desk.
Now, if Senator McCain would just promise to get every single American soldier out of Iraq in a little less than one hundred years…
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.