What is the McCain camp hiding with his health records?

The McCain campaign "released" the president-elect’s long awaited, long promised, health records in classic fashion: on the edge of a holiday weekend, when they would be guaranteed to get little attention. Not only that, but the records were made available to only 20 reporters hand-picked by the campaign.

Those journalists were given three hours to view more than 1,000 pages of often highly technical records; they were not allowed to make copies or remove them. McCain’s doctors were made available for 90 minutes — or so the newspeople were told. The questions were cut short after 45 minutes.

America’s increasingly lapdog media did not report much about this odd, not to mention suspicious, situation, made more compelling given McCain’s age and cancer history. The headlines were essentially "McCain is healthy…robust…takes a baby aspirin…no cancer recurrence."

Tellingly, the McCain campaign excluded the New York Times’ Lawrence K. Altman, a reporter and a medical doctor. Even so, Dr. Altman’s examination of the pool report made the real news, which Rogue Columnist will start your week with and keep up.

In Altman’s story he unearths this revelation:

But the 1,173 pages of medical records did provide some important details about his cancer in 2000: Two pathologists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
who examined the melanoma specimen from Mr. McCain’s left temple in
2000 suggested that there were two melanomas on his temple, not one, as
his doctors had said publicly at the time.

McCain’s doctors claim that the melanoma was classified as IIA.The Times reports, "But two experts in the field who reviewed the pathology report
released on Friday said it was unclear whether the melanoma on Mr.
McCain’s temple had metastasized from another, or whether there was one
new primary melanoma." Spreading from a nearby melanoma would suggest more risk.

Altman also makes this point:

In the (conference call with reporters), Dr. Eckstein said there was no evidence of short-term memory loss
in Mr. McCain either in his history or his examination, but Dr.
Eckstein did not say if he had performed tests of Mr. McCain’s mental
status. The issue of mental competence has been an especially sensitive one since the end of the Reagan presidency. Former President Ronald Reagan at times forgot and confused names of people. After he left the White House, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s

Then there were unanswered questions about McCain’s 2000 cancer surgery, including the puffy appearance of his jaw. One of his doctors "said that during the reconstructive surgery to close the wound, 33
lymph nodes were removed, a relatively large number, because they were
already exposed and Dr. Hinni felt it a ‘prudent’ course."

Many reporters might leave it there. But Dr. Altman bring’s a physician’s added perspective:

Because doctors generally do not recommend extensive neck node
dissection for Stage IIA, a number of melanoma experts have said they
suspected that Mr. McCain’s melanoma was Stage III, which carries a
bleaker prognosis.

Once again, the Straight Talk Express has pulled a fast one. McCain’s health is apparently an issue that frightens his campaign and the GOP; it must be concealed and carefully controlled. Given Hillary Clinton’s determination to destroy the Democratic Party and the fear many whites have of a mixed-race candidate — and even a candidate who is smart and doesn’t pander to them as a faux redneck — this is more dire news for America.