BREAKING: People Read Blogs in Mississippi. NRSC Blames Chris McDaniel For Mississippi Literacy.

Thad Cochran is getting his butt kicked in Mississippi by conservative challenger Chris McDaniel. That has sent the NRSC and its friends into a tailspin and they are desperate to tar and feather Chris McDaniel.

Some freak in Mississippi has handed them their latest tool. By willfully ignoring the real timeline and facts, the NRSC wishes to drag Chris McDaniel into scandal and, they no doubt hope, down in the polls.

It is an open secret in Mississippi that Thad Cochran’s wife is in a nursing home. I have known it for some time, which is why RedState has not pushed the story about Cochran’s relationship with Kay Webber.

Having had a family member in a similar condition I’d like to know why his wife is in a home 1500 miles away from Cochran’s primary residence.

Thad Cochran is 76 years old. He has two grown children and, I would presume, grandchildren. Did you consider that they probably live in Mississippi and perhaps want their mother/grandmother close to them (not to mention Mrs. Cochran's sisters, brothers, S-i-Ls, B-i-Ls, and other relatives)?

Cochran maintains a home in Jackson, Mississippi and--as a U. S. Senator--will make frequent trips to his home state while his family would have little reason to travel to D.C.

Oh, and BTW, the driving distance from Jackson, MS to Washington, D.C. is 981 miles, not 1500.

P.S. - My condolences on having a relative with dementia. I've been there, too.

You don’t put mother in a HOME.

If they live in MS she should be at HOME WITH THEM.

They are NOT a poor family. Not even close. They can AFFORD to build on to an existing home to take care of their MOTHER. Even the Amish do this! She’s entitled to round the clock care and watching because her husband is a senator. These are not shift work people who have to try to make ends meet and starve to hire someone to watch mother while they’re working. They can afford sitters (at our expense!) for her. Why is she in a HOME??!

They are all too BUSY to worry about mother. Which tells me all I need to know about Thad and his kids and grandkids. My own family, another branch, had a retarded child with the intellect of a 5yr old (too long in the birth canal) who they refused to put her in a home. Even though it caused great hardship for them to keep her at home. They were poor but they KNEW what happened to female relatives in those places. And they actually CARED about her. They could easily have thrown her away. But didn’t.

The Cochrans have thrown this woman away.

Cochran hasn’t spent more than a few days in MS in the past 20 years.

She’s his WIFE, not some stray dog he found by the side of the road. She should be AT HOME WITH HER FAMILY. They can AFFORD IT. Actually, WE afford it. She’s entitled to the BEST round the clock nursing care on earth. At OUR expense.

If Thad REALLY cared about his wife and her privacy and SAFETY, she would NOT be in a CARE facility 1500 MILES away from his being able to see about her.

I have NEVER heard of any family that CARED about their ill relative that could AFFORD it putting MOTHER in a HOME. NEVER.

Anyone KNOWS what happens to female (and male) patients in these places. Even in the ‘best’ of these facilities.

At 76, he’s still young enough to shack up with someone else, hire her at OUR expense and take her on boondoggles to many countries at OUR expense. If he were in the corporate world he’d be fired for that alone.

I am SUSPICIOUS of the Cochran operatives already connecting this behavior to the Tea Party. The first hen that cackled laid the egg. They’ve been cackling since before anyone else really knew about this.

Read the situational ethics with this one:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3157179/posts?page=80#80

Adultery is A-OK, as long as it’s long term and with just one person.

Especially if the spouse is vulnerable and 1500 miles away. If they don’t recognize you its apparently OK to cheat. Because those vows don’t mean anything at that point. And if we question this behavior we’re just as guilty or something.

Yup, just the person I’m going to vote for. Conservatives despised it when John Edwards cheated while his wife was ill. But that was worse apparently because she was still in her right mind. Or something.

This is a comment on hotair:

“I heard a story last nite on a Tea Party telephone conference. Thad has been in the Senate forever (5 or 6 terms) and has the highest paid lady personal assistant ever in DC ($140 K) and she owns a $1M home in the DC area and Thad rents out the basement apartment from her and they travel everywhere together and have forever. So maybe the poor demented wife’s story and pictures were to be used to embarrass Thad and ask him why he was acheatin’ on his wife.
Also Cletis (I think that’s the lady attorney’s name of the Tea Parties re: IRS Lois Lerner target scandal) said that the Cochran campaign was getting collateralized money illegally (if that makes sense)and she blew the whistle on them with the FEC yesterday.

That was the newsiest political phone call I’ve ever had that seems so incredibly timely.”

I don't think that Cochran's personal relationship equates to say, that of Wilbur Mills and Fannie Foxx... Cochran remains married to his wife, provides for her care, and I think that he and his EA are making the best of what is a lousy, tragic situation. She worked for him long before his wife became ill..and there was never any suggestion that Thad was cheating on her. So, they've all made an accommodation to deal with an untenable situation. I won't hold that against them....some may..I won't.

However, once the relationship began, she should have left his Senate employment..the appearance, the perception of impropriety becomes the reality of the same. They were open about the relationship..never attempted to conceal it.. because Cochran obviously thought it was OK...and that's because he's been in DC far too long..he wasn't able to see what is obvious to the rest of us..

What’s untenable about it?

He made vows to his wife and the people he serves. He broke them. He’s a POS from either angle. He didn’t make a single correct choice. The mistress certainly didn’t getting involved with a married man with a sick wife and profiting with 6 zeros from his position. The wife got warehoused. The Cheshire conservative media acted completely liberal and covered up for the whole crew.

They all deserve to have ‘it’ held against them.

How is what Cochran is doing any different than what John Edwards did when his wife was ill with cancer?

It isn’t.

Just because Edwards wife was ‘cognizant’ doesn’t make the act of faithlessness any better. In fact, the fact that Cochran’s wife DOES have dementia makes it worse.

Conservatives just about busted a blood vessel with indignation against Edwards but are somehow OK with this.

And he’s not taking care of her. Not at all. She’s 1500 MILES away from him in a HOME.

If he were TRULY taking care of her she’d be safe at home with a child or with him. Plenty of people take care of Alzheimers relatives in their homes. People who aren’t wealthy. People who don’t have platinum level health care for around the clock care. People who don’t have the money to pay for additional facilities in their homes for this purpose. He HAS platinum level health care. He CAN afford to have the facilities to care for her at home. If he TRULY cared about her privacy and safety, she would NOT be in a home.

The fact is, she became inconvenient to his lifestyle and that of his mistress so he abandoned her 1500 miles away.

Out of sight, out of mind.

You don’t put your wife in a HOME. Molestation, abuse, neglect all happen even in the best of these places. Even if you’re literally across town from them. Much less 1500 miles away. Especially to residents who are unable to verbalize that they’ve been mistreated. Those are the patients who are particularly victimized.

And if she WERE in a good home this would NEVER have happened.

And yes, he’s a cheat with the chippy wrt his job. Were he in corporate pulling that same stuff he’d be so fired. HR wouldn’t stand for it. Not one minute. Neither would legal. Lots of rules in corporate about boinking the staff. Much less taking them on company paid for boondoggles to ‘romantic venues’ like Italy and France.

And I want to know if he receives some sort of stipend for living expenses that he’s using to pay her mortgage. I want to know if the ‘basement apartment’ is even liveable.

If he’s this dishonest about something as simple as living arrangements, what else is he dishonest about?

Apparently, you either like to exaggerate or are geographically challenged. Jackson, MS is 981 road miles from Washington, D.C., not 1500. If you don't believe me, look it up yourself.

I have no idea if the health care that U.S. Senators receive covers round-the-clock, in-home care or not, and I'll bet that you don't know either. My guess would be that it doesn't, but I suppose I could be wrong about that. Since you seem so sure of it, mind quoting a source for your info?

I did know a man (his daughter's husband is one of my best friends) who retired from Standard Oil of California as a senior VP. He was worth a lot of money. Long, slow declines (with round-the-clock, in-home care) of first him, and then his wife, depleted almost all of their net worth.

And, yes, I did put mother in a home. She was paralyzed on one side. She could not get out of bed, and had to be repositioned every few hours to keep from getting bedsores, not to mention having her diapers changed and her feeding tube maintained.

My sister lived 800 miles away and had a business to run; my brother lived 90 minutes away and had lung cancer; and I'm in poor health myself. My mother was 93 when she went in the facility, so all of us "kids" were elderly, too.

Nobody had enough money for 24/7/365 in home care, especially after caring for my father a few years before. He had Alzheimer's. We kept him at home until the last five months of his life, and by "we," I mean my mother, myself, and one of their grandsons (my nephew). We all lived in my parents' house, and it took all three of us to take care of him. I'm sure it shortened my mother's life. When my nephew had a chance to take a good job out of town, what were we supposed to do, tell him he had to sacrifice his opportunity for his grandfather?

We could have put my mother in a facility close to my sister, but then she would have been far away from me and my brother, not to mention her grandchildren. Sometimes there is no really great solution.

Look, I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't know Cochran or his family. I don't like his taking a staffer as a bed partner. I posted to you because there was a factual error in you post, and because I have learned to be careful before judging others without an intimate knowledge of their circumstances, a problem you don't seem to share. "Judge not, lest ye be judged." I read that somewhere.

As for being suspicious of the Cochran campaign concocting this story as disinformation, you may be right. Why you mentioned it to me I don't know since I never brought it up.

900+ miles is hardly across town.

Because that makes it different. Because those 600 miles make a difference when you’ve still got 900 to go.

She’s warehoused in a state far away.

Out of sight. Out of mind.

Plenty of nursing homes in NoVa. But she’s not there.

Trust me. Senators have healthcare you and I could only DREAM about. She HAS the ability to have around the clock nursing.

I know this for a fact.

They have this healthcare, btw, for life. You could only DREAM of the healthcare they have. You do pay for it however.

We’ve NEVER put any elderly or infirm in my immediate family in a home. Ever. The ones who aren’t able to communicate are the most vulnerable. They are molested, abused and mistreated with shocking regularity. ‘Crimes against a vulnerable person’ is a common news report these days.

You and your family were different than the Cochrans though. You DID have jobs to go to. YOu did NOT have around the clock sitters or the ability pay for that. Cochran does.

He’s a scumbag who’s warehoused his wife in a state FAR AWAY from his current residence. Regardless of whether he’s got kids to do the job or not, it’s HIS job to care for his spouse. His job is secondary. He is hardly a poor man. And if his fortune is diminished because he has to skip out on a few years of DC corruption then that’s just too bad!

That chair in DC in the senate chamber, much as Cochran would like to THINK it does, doesn’t have ‘Thad’ carved on the seat bottom. His family comes first. Or should. That ‘for better or worse’ part. We’d have understood and elected someone else. People leave public office to care for sick family all the time. Unless you’re Thad. Then you’re a scumbag. And conservatives will defend you to the death for this scumminess.

Cochran and Edwards both cheated on ill wives.

Edwards actually wasn’t as bad as Cochran. Mrs. Edwards could give him a piece of her mind. Or call lawyers. Or pick up the phone and call a hit man (the money was largely hers).

Mrs. Cochran just got warehoused. And forgotten. And not even in a particularly safe facility apparently. At the tender mercies of perfect strangers to change her diapers and care for her intimate needs.

So yeah, worse than Edwards. Much worse. Mrs Edwards had choice over who were here caregivers. Not so much Mrs. Cochran. Whoever was on shift was her lot in life.

Meanwhile Cochran is jetting about the planet, on the public pay, with his chippy who’s on the public pay. Like he’s not got a care in the world.

Lots of politicians resign from office to take care of sick family members. Most of them aren’t even as ill as Mrs. Cochran.

Lots of people are good enough to not warehouse their spouses who have alzheimers. I can name 3 families right now, middle class, who are caring for their spouse at HOME. Because they wouldn’t DARE trust them in a ‘home’. That doesn’t make them ‘better people’. It makes them human beings however. Who care for their family.

Apparently Mrs. Cochran didn’t have a husband or children who really cared about her...I’d NEVER allow my mom to be in a home if I were wealthy enough to care for her at home. And the Cochrans are VERY wealthy people...

This is what happens to vulnerable people:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nursing-home-abuse-increasing/

Now, exponentiate that.

For the same reason that pedophiles seek jobs where they have unrestricted access to children, abusive people seek jobs where they have unrestricted access to vulnerable people to abuse.

Nursing homes should be a very LAST resort for someone you’ve EVER claimed to care about. There ARE no good ones. None. Just less bad ones.

I can't argue with you, because your position is absolute, inviolate, and pure. All I can do is offer some possible perspective.

1. To say that you can care for a person at home isn't far. You don't know what the circumstances are. In some cases that can be done. In other cases, it simply isn't possible. You have no idea what level of care she requires. My MIL lived with us the last 10 years of her life. She became ill ( liver cancer) six months before she died. She died at home, in her bed...I was her primary care giver for that time. My wife ( her daughter) was psychologically incapable of doing it. Neither were our two daughters. OTOH, I had to put my own mother into a nursing home when her dementia accelerated. No two cases are alike. So you shouldn't be so quick t o accuse, let alone condemn.

2. Cochran married in 1964. So, they had 36 years together before she was institutionalized. The marriage produced two kids, who both, one can assume, agreed with the decision. By every record, it was a good marriage, never a whiff of a scandal. UNLIKE EDWARDS..again..you cheapen your own argument by continuing to push that canard. I was married for 35 years. before we divorced. The first 25 were wonderful..all that I ever hoped it could be..the last 10 were horrid..and no way was I going to remain in that situation..

I sincerely hope for you sake that your path in life is always easy...but alas..sometimes it's not..

Great! Here’s one to get you going. Stop overlooking the failings of men that abandon their wives for healthier mistresses. If we want a more conservative and moral world, we are responsible for building it.

Saintly as I may appear to be, I am not perfect either. But when I was in a similar situation with my own wife (cancer) I didn’t throw her into a home and forget about her while banging the secretary. I spent months and every free second by her side at home and in a hospital until she died. And then raised a young daughter as a single parent rather than pawning her off to foster care.

So yes, people like this POS really hit home with their flagrant disregard for their vows.

It was uncommon to warehouse your loved ones when they got on in years. Very uncommon.

I collect old womens magazines from the 1800’s. Nearly every issue had tips and suggestions for getting fussy infants to eat and suggestions for cheering up that elderly relative who’s staying with you indefinitely. And suggestions for arranging covers, living arrangements, meals and such to make the life of said relative as comfortable as possible. One article was even on the best fabrics to use for ‘incontinence’ in the elderly. Ie, adult diapers.

Nursing homes are new things. And a recognition that we are far to ‘busy’ to care for our relatives. Only relatives who were violent and/or too strong to be cared for were placed there.

Grandma wasn’t put there just because she was senile.

Grandma might have a specially designed chair she was tied into in the kitchen so mama could prepare food for the family and not worry about gramma wandering off.

But gramma didn’t have to worry about being molested by big Jeff the night intern. And the family didn’t have to worry about that either.

And the family didn’t have to worry about ‘well, she fell down the stairs, that’s how she got all those awful bruises on the BACK of her legs...’ type of suspicious excuses.

And mama wasn’t going to starve gramma or ‘punish’ her for being senile. Gramma (and mama too!) might tipple in the evening after the dishes were put up. To help gramma sleep and to help mama’s nerves.

We warehouse the inconvenient elderly and infirm for the reason we kill downs children after they’re diagnosed in the womb. We’re far far far too busy to be bothered with all that. And we are being judged for that attitude too...

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.