Is there a mystery woman in Cindy McCain's life? And why does she look so familiar? Hmmmm? (see photo here)





Last Tuesday, NPR broadcast a story about Cindy McCain's business and charity work. In it, Ted Robbins described McCain as the only child of Jim Hensley, a wealthy Arizona businessman. The next morning, NPR received an e-mail from Nicholas Portalski of Phoenix, who heard the story with his mother."We were listening to the piece about Cindy McCain on NPR, All Things Considered, and it just struck us very hard," Portalski said.His mother, Kathleen Hensley Portalski, is also Hensley's daughter.

::brakes screeeeeeeeeech!!:: Huh? Cindy Lou has a sister? Since when? And where, why, has she been hiding her?

The Portalski family is accustomed to hearing Cindy McCain described as Hensley's only child. She's been described that way by news organizations from The New Yorker and The New York Times to Newsweek and ABC. McCain herself routinely uses the phrase "only child," as she did on CNN last month. "I grew up with my dad," she said then. "I'm an only child. My father was a cowboy, and he really loved me very much, but I think he wanted a son occasionally."McCain's father was also a businessman — and twice a father.

Why oh why are they shunning Kathleen? Are they ashamed of her? She's not Republican or wealthy enough for them? Not enough face lifts? No P.O.W. creds? Can't draw crosses in dirt?

"I'm upset," Kathleen Portalski says. "I'm angry. It makes me feel like a nonperson, kind of."

Uh, yeah, one might be a tad upset if one's very famous, dare I say "celebrity", sister of beer wealth/presidential nominee wife fame is ignoring her very existence.





Documents show Kathleen Anne Hensley was born to Jim and Mary Jeanne Hensley on Feb. 23, 1943. They had been married for six years when Kathleen was born. Jim Hensley was a bombardier on a B-17, flying over Europe during World War II. He was injured and sent to a facility in West Virginia to recuperate. During that time, while still married to Mary Jeanne, Hensley met another woman — Marguerite Smith. Jim divorced Mary Jeanne and married Marguerite in 1945.

Wowzers! He's just like Cindy's husband, John Sidney McAdulterer! They have so much in common, you'd think they'd be the closest sisters ever, wouldn't you?

Cindy Lou Hensley was born nine years later, in 1954. She may have grown up as an only child, but so did her half sister, Kathleen, who was raised by a single parent. Portalski says she did see her father and her half sister from time to time. "I saw him a few times a year," she says. "I saw him at Christmas and birthdays, and he provided money for school clothes, and he called occasionally."

The monetary gifts lasted 10 years. And then daddykins got really rich and the payments stopped. But wait! Our soap opera, "As the Beer Ferments", is only just beginning:

When Hensley died in 2000, his will named not only Portalski but also a daughter of his wife Marguerite from her earlier marriage. So, Cindy McCain may be the only product of Jim and Marguerite's marriage, but she is not the only child of either. She was, however, the sole inheritor of his considerable estate. Kathleen Portalski was left $10,000, and her children were left nothing. It's a fact Nicholas Portalski says his sister discovered the hard way. "What she found in town — on the day of or the day before or the day after his funeral — was that the credit card didn't work anymore," Nick says.

Looks like they treated Kathleen the way J Sid treats most of America.

They also say they are Democrats, but Nicholas Portalski says he had another reason for coming forward. "The fact that we don't exist," he says. "The fact that we've never been recognized, and then Cindy has to put such a fine point on it by saying something that's not true. Recently, again and again. It's just very, very hurtful." Kathleen Portalski says she'd like an acknowledgment and an apology. NPR asked the McCain campaign — specifically, Cindy McCain — to comment or respond. Neither replied.

Lying and deception is everywhere in the John Sidney McCain/Cindy Lou Hensley household. No telling what you'll find if you look hard enough.

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About author Robin Elliot's career includes TV/stage comedy writing, producing, acting. She is an Artist-In-Residence at a magnet high school that specializes in Theatre Arts and is co-editor ("GottaLaff") at http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/ and has a regular spot on Progressive radio with Angie Coiro, plus started a new series of Webisodes called Blunt http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/2010/01/video-blunt-pilot-webisode.html