Hunter Biden, Edra Blixseth, Konrad Ng and Andrew McCain topped the list of most-searched names on Muckety for the week of Aug. 28 through Sept. 3.
Hunter Biden
Topping the list was Hunter Biden, the 38-year-old son of Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden. Hunter Biden was in the news last week after Barack Obama announced his VP pick and reporters began doing their own vetting of the Biden family.
The younger Biden was a consultant with MBNA from 2001 to 2005, while the banking giant was lobbying his father to help the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection.
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Edra Blixseth
No. 2 was Edra Blixseth, who was the subject of a profile by Bloomberg’s Anthony Effinger after she settled a 19-month-long divorce fight with ex-husband Tim. This is a snippet from the Bloomberg report:
Edra lives in a 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square- meter) mansion on an estate near Palm Springs, California, called Porcupine Creek. The house, complete with servants, is surrounded by a private golf course.
Porcupine Creek, a Gulfstream II, a 2004 Rolls-Royce Phantom and a BMW 760 are some of the spoils of Edra’s July divorce from Tim. After a 19-month-long fight, she also got control of one big source of their wealth: a private Montana ski- and golf resort called the Yellowstone Club, where the likes of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, News Corp. President Peter Chernin and hotelier Barry Sternlicht have erected supersized chalets on lots that until the real estate crash sold for $2 million and more.
Konrad Ng
Konrad Ng, the husband of Barack Obama’s half-sister, was the third most-searched name on Muckety, after his wife, Maya Soetoro-Ng, spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
Here are a few nuggets about Obama’s half sister from MSNBC’s profiles of convention speakers:
- Soetoro-Ng, 36, cites Obama as a father figure, as her parents divorced when she was just 9.
- She holds a Ph.D. in comparative education from the University of Hawaii.
- She teaches 9th-grade world cultures and 11th-grade U.S. history and the U.S. Constitution at an all-girls school in Honolulu.
- She and Ng, a Chinese-Canadian, have one daughter, Suhaila, who was 2 in September 2007.
- One of the four bumper stickers on her car reads, “1-20-09. End of an Error.” Another is a “Women for Obama” sticker.
- She recalled their mother would wake them up in the middle of the night to look at the moon.
Andrew McCain
Andrew McCain, one of John McCain’s two sons from his first marriage to Carol McCain, came under scrutiny after resigning as a director of Silver State Bancorp in late July, just days before the Nevada-based company announced it might be on the brink of failure. Andrew McCain is also the CFO of Hensley & Co., the Arizona beer distributor where his stepmother, Cindy McCain, is chair of the board.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
Arthur Culvahouse, Jr.
Arthur Culvahouse, Jr., who is the chairman of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers and the head of the GOP vice-presidential search team for John McCain. With McCain’s surprise pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the questions surrounding the depth of her vetting, Culvahouse ended up being vetted himself.
Anne Korin
Anne Korin, an analyst with the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, who got a lot of attention for her August speech before the National Conservative Student Conference. More about Anne Korin…
Ashley Biden
Ashley Biden, the daughter of Sen. Joe Biden, who was not so much in the news, but in the search results as the curious sought to learn more about the family of the Democratic vice presidential nominee. More about Ashley Biden from Mahalo.
Susan Mikula
Susan Mikula, who was caught in the spotlight when her partner, political analyst Rachael Maddow, sat in for the vacationing Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, and was then given her own show, at the expense of Dan Abrams.
Neilia Hunter Biden
More Biden family vetting here as people sought to find out more about Joe Biden’s first wife, who was killed in a car accident in 1972. One of Biden’s daughter’s was also killed in the crash. More here…
Scott Bommer
Scott Bommer, who was in the news after he sold his co-op at 1060 Fifth Avenue for $48.9 million. Bommer bought the co-op in January for $46 million, setting a record at the time. The New York Observer has an article on the sale.