Franklin Delano McCain

Editorial of The New York Sun
April 25, 2008

We see where Los Angeles Times is warning that the disclosure of Senator McCain's disability payments from the Navy for wartime injuries "may raise fitness questions" amid the presidential campaign. This was the story rushed out by Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. It said that when the senator released his tax return for 2007 on Friday, he separately disclosed that he received a pension of $58,358 that was not listed as income on his return. It reported that on Monday Mr. McCain's staff "identified the retirement benefit as a 'disability pension' and said that McCain 'was retired as disabled because of his limited body movements due to injuries as a POW.'" Quoth Mr. McCain's spokesman, Mark Salter, as reported by the Times: "Tortured for his country — that is how he acquired his disability." This strikes us as an excellent issue for the Democratic papers to press against Mr. McCain. Maybe they could do a whole series of articles on the subject, run out maybe one long dispatch a week between now and November.