McCain's recent history (September 13th, 2008)
Why is the distant history of John McCain as a prisoner of war always part of his resume, but his more recent history in the savings and loan failings of the 1980s and 1990s is never mentioned?
McCain was one of the senators in the Keating 5 who took $1.3 million in campaign contributions from Michael Keating. Those five senators then used their influence to get regulators to back off their investigations of Lincoln Savings and Loan, owned by Keating.
Way back then McCain showed his propensity for working across the aisle as the other four senators were all Democrats. Three of them were severely reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee and did not run for re-election after serving out their terms....
Keating 5 ring a bell? (September 25, 2008)
Once upon a time, a politician took campaign contributions and favors from a friendly constituent who happened to run a savings and loan association. The contributions were generous: They came to about $200,000 in today's dollars, and on top of that there were several free vacations for the politician and his family, along with private jet trips and other perks. The politician voted repeatedly against congressional efforts to tighten regulation of S&Ls, and in 1987, when he learned that his constituent's S&L was the target of a federal investigation, he met with regulators in an effort to get them to back off.
That politician was John McCain, and his generous friend was Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings & Loan....
Revisiting McCain's Keating 5 history (September 4, 2008)
At one time, John McCain said the worst thing that ever happened to him, Vietnam included, was the so-called Keating 5 scandal. "The Vietnamese," he would say, "didn't question my honor."
Among McCain's earliest benefactors in Arizona was Lincoln Savings and Loan chief Charles Keating Jr., who filled McCain's campaign coffers with more than $100,000 and hosted the McCains multiple times at his vacation home in the Bahamas.
Keating expected his largesse to be rewarded, and when federal regulators began looking into Lincoln's questionable lending practices and investments in the late 1980s, he turned to five senators whose coffers he had lined -- Alan Cranston of California, Donald Riegle of Michigan, John Glenn of Ohio and both Arizona senators, Dennis DeConcini and McCain.
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Now that's palling around.
Yes, it's amazing how a dire financial crisis with corrupt banks failing left and right refreshes the memories of crises past. Apparently the Obama campaign has decided to (finally) make this an issue. Did McCain do anything illegal? No. Did he help out a bankrupt scumbag? You betcha.
Although McCain's excellent experience in matters pertaining to corruption and bailouts is certainly notable, the one that I think really deserves more attention is his close relationship with good old G. Gordon Liddy. Anybody who thinks that Liddy shows "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great" is seriously bad news.
So Obama's association with Ayers still counts.
Unfair? You got it. But if you must take a man to task for mistakes he made in the past, then your favorite will be taken to task for mistakes he made in the past.
Yes, Alan, reviewing someone's book shows a dire lack of judgment, as does serving on the same board. That's definitely up there with hanging out at your wife's business partner's place in the Bahamas. Right.
Nice of you to note that the kerfuffle over Ayers is unfair, though, even if you have your order of events reversed.