Revisiting McCain's Keating 5 history

[maddezmom]

Revisiting McCain's Keating 5 history
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...

By Los Angeles Times

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.

McCain attended two meetings with regulators at Keating's request. McCain's view was that he was seeking information on behalf of a constituent who was an important employer in his state. The regulators' view was that they were being pressured to act favorably for Keating.

Lincoln's collapse, the biggest of many savings and loan failures, cost taxpayers $2.6 billion. Keating spent four years in jail, before his sentence was overturned on a technicality, and the Keating 5, as the senators came to be known, lived under an ethical cloud for years.
more:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008157607_mckeating04.html

[maddezmom]

1. McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five

McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five
The story of "the Keating Five" has become a scandal rivaling Teapot Dome and Watergate
By Tom Fitzpatrick
Published on November 29, 1989
You're John McCain, a fallen hero who wanted to become president so desperately that you sold yourself to Charlie Keating, the wealthy con man who bears such an incredible resemblance to The Joker.


Subject(s):
John Mc John McCain, Keating FiveObviously, Keating thought you could make it to the White House, too.
He poured $112,000 into your political campaigns. He became your friend. He threw fund raisers in your honor. He even made a sweet shopping-center investment deal for your wife, Cindy. Your father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was cut in on the deal, too.

Nothing was too good for you. Why not? Keating saw you as a prime investment that would pay off in the future.

So he flew you and your family around the country in his private jets. Time after time, he put you up for serene, private vacations at his vast, palatial spa in the Bahamas. All of this was so grand. You were protected from what Thomas Hardy refers to as "the madding crowd." It was almost as though you were already staying at a presidential retreat.

Like the old song, that now seems "Long ago and far away."

Since Keating's collapse, you find yourself doing obscene things to save yourself from the Senate Ethics Committee's investigation. As a matter of course, you engage in backbiting behavior that will turn you into an outcast in the Senate if you do survive.

more:http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1989-11-29/news/mccain-the-most-reprehensible-of-the-keating-five/1

[maddezmom]

2. Keating 5 Survivor John McCain Now Favors Regulating Same Industry He De-Regulated When Lobbied 15

Keating 5 Survivor John McCain Now Favors Regulating Same Industry He De-Regulated When Lobbied 15 yrs ago


Today's news that AIG has been taken over by the federal government for $85 billion dollars could be the straw that breaks John McCain's back. If, and only if, Obama hits the message home in real time and doesn't let up until November 4th.

McCain, a champion of deregulation in the Senate, former Commerce Committee Chair, has taken an abrupt about face on the economy after yesterday's suicide mission in which he called the fundamentals of the economy strong.

In that one statement, then the support of regulation of finance, McCain has demonstrated that he is right. He doesn't know much about the economy. The late Tim Russert brought that out on Meet the Press not long ago.

If this is the moment Obama has been waiting for and he stays on message, he will win the election.
There is no easier target than a presidential campaign that was on the uptick then self-destructs. McCain now looks out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans, who are legitimately worried about their 401Ks and investments. McCain also looks out of touch with the thousands of people walking away from the buildings they worked at in Manhattan with no jobs and no clear future.

more:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-donahue/as-of-today-fundamentals_b_127030.html

[shredfest]

13. Street corner in Madison Wi. McCain will want to avoid

[maddezmom]

3. Don't Concede Issues of Ethics and Clean Government to McCain

Don't Concede Issues of Ethics and Clean Government to McCain
by Jonathan Singer, Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:21:14 PM EST

John Edwards making the case for his candidacy:


"Well, he is starting to look like the Republican nominee," Edwards said in response to a reporter's question about McCain, "and I think it's important for us to have somebody to run against McCain who can beat him. And national polls show that I'm the one who beats John McCain in the general election. And second, I think even more important than that, this is a guy who's made central to his political life campaign finance reform. It seems to me we ought to be putting somebody up against him who's never taken money from special interest PACs or Washington lobbyists. Between the three of us, that's me."

Leaving aside a debate over whether John Edwards would be the strongest Democrat to go up against John McCain in a general election, I'd like to focus a bit on Edwards' language here. I don't mean to pick on Edwards but rather to use his language here as an example of what I believe we cannot and should not do when dealing with McCain, particularly if he is the Republican nominee.

McCain has done a great job of courting the media, not only over the past 8 to 10 years but throughout his entire career, and on the basis of this close relationship with the establishment press he has been able to position himself as a true champion of clean government. But is he? Is this something that Democrats should be conceding to him?

The only reason why McCain took up the mantle of campaign finance reform was that he was intimately caught up in the Keating Five corruption scandal back in the 1980s -- a scandal that could have strong legs in a general election this year even though it occurred so long ago. In short, the scandal entailed Charles Keating, the head of a Savings and Loan institution that went belly up, and the steps he took -- including trying to call in favors from Senators to whom he and associates had given trips and donated campaign money -- to try to get Congressional investigators off of his back. In an era when the federal government is faced with the possibility of having to bail out billions or even trillions in bad debt resulting from the subprime lending industry, a politician's involvement in a corruption scandal linked to a similar boondoggle -- in the case of the savings and loan crisis, the federal government picked up a tab of close to $125 billion -- isn't necessarily going to be a positive.

more:http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/1/20/212114/509

[maddezmom]

4. ABC news Slams McCain's Deregulation Flip Flop!!

ABC news Slams McCain's Deregulation Flip Flop!!
by Drdemocrat
Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 05:42:53 PM PDT
ABC News took McCain to task tonight. World News Tonight not only called on McCain on his AIG bailout flip flop but more importantly they slammed McCain on his deregulation flip flop including Wall Street Journal and George Will calling McCain out on his "conversion of convenience" flop.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/17/202943/892/924/602175

[maddezmom]

5. Economic Slump Underlines Concerns About McCain Advisers

Economic Slump Underlines Concerns About McCain Advisers

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 2, 2008; A01



One of them helped deregulate the financial services industries in the 1990s, and now sits in the corporate suites of Swiss banking giant UBS, which yesterday announced $19 billion in investment losses tied to the crumbling U.S. real estate market.

The other pushed one of the most aggressive and controversial mergers of the technology boom, then was sacked by the disenchanted board of Hewlett-Packard.

Former senator Phil Gramm, with his aw-shucks Texas drawl, may at first blush have little in common with Carly Fiorina, the telegenic former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. But they share a bond: Both are leading economic advisers of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee for president, and both have reputations as the kind of aggressive capitalists that may be sliding from favor as the nation's economy edges toward recession.

Democratic opponents are already plotting attacks on two advocates of what Robert Reich, a former Clinton labor secretary, described as "dog eat dog capitalism," an economic philosophy that works well when the economy is on the upswing but may not play so well in a trough. "McCain is counting on people having very short memories and not connecting some pretty obvious dots here," said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, summing up a growing liberal critique of McCain's economic team.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102860_pf.html

[maddezmom]

6. McCain's Son Sat on Troubled Bank's Board

McCain's Son Sat on Troubled Bank's Board
Silver State Bancorp
Is Facing Big Losses,
Regulatory Scrutiny
By DAMIAN PALETTA, DAVID ENRICH and ELIZABETH HOLMESArticle
Comments
more in Politics & Campaign »Sen. John McCain's son served until last month on the board audit committee of a Nevada bank that is struggling to survive amid mounting losses and regulatory scrutiny.

Andy McCain was on the board of Silver State Bancorp for just five months before he resigned on July 25 for 'personal reasons.'
A week after Mr. McCain's departure, the Henderson, Nev., company reported a loss of $62.7 million in the second quarter and said its capital -- the bank's cushion to absorb losses -- had eroded significantly. At the same time, Silver State announced the resignations of its chief executive and chairman.

On Thursday, the bank said in a securities filing that it actually lost $73.2 million in the second quarter. Silver State also said in the filing that its worsening financial condition means there is "uncertainty about the company's ability to continue as a going concern."

There is no evidence that the younger Mr. McCain committed any wrongdoing, or that Sen. McCain, the Republican presidential candidate from Arizona, had any knowledge or involvement in the bank's woes, which partly stemmed from troubled construction and land-development loans.

But with banks across the country struggling amid the credit crunch and the economic slowdown, the Republican presidential candidate's family ties could emerge as an issue on the campaign trail. The younger Mr. McCain's associates had urged him to step down from the board of Silver State, saying it could become a liability in his father's White House bid, according to a person in the local banking industry familiar with the matter.

more:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121876461747243159.html?mod=googlenews_wsji

[lonestarnot]

7. He certainly has experience in undo influence. 20 years reduced to 1 week, ask cindy bout her

"influential" husband. LOL

[maddezmom]

8. Biden: McCain Has Had an 'Epiphany'

Biden: McCain Has Had an 'Epiphany'
Email
Share September 16, 2008 11:04 AM

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden Tuesday blamed the nation's current economic problems on the Bush administration and urged voters not to give another Republican like John McCain a chance to fix them.

"Who got us in this hole, whose policies?" Biden said on CBS's 'The Early Show.' "This has been a Republican philosophy of letting Wall Street do what they want and the middle class be damned. It's about time we change it. If I sound like I'm angry, I am fighting mad for middle class people who have been the scapegoat of this economy because of the policies of the McCains and the Bushes."

Biden continued to lambast McCain for his comment Monday in Jacksonville that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" but then later releasing an ad noting that "the economy is in crisis."

"It seems like John's had an epiphany," Biden told CBS's Maggie Rodriguez. "9 o'clock yesterday morning John thought the economy was going great guns and the Bush administration is doing well and today he thinks it's in crisis."

more:http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/biden-mccain-ha.html

[lonestarnot]

9. A lumpy old cript keeper with influence!

[dgibby]

10. Vietnamese

didn't have to question his "honor". He sang like a canary!:grr: :puke:

[maddezmom]

11. McCain May Not Understand the Fundamentals, But His Lobbyist Advisors Do. A McCain Admin Would Drill

McCain May Not Understand the Fundamentals, But His Lobbyist Advisors Do. A McCain Admin Would Drill Our Economy into the Ground
Submitted by meg on Fri, 09/19/2008 - 12:13pm. Analysis
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White


In the second in our two-part series about the Republican ticket's economic past, we saved the best for last. As we mentioned in our first piece, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin doesn't have a long record, but it's one that would make any economist (or working, middle class American for that matter) shake their head in disbelief.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, on the other hand, has a long, rich history of either screwing up the economy or just ignoring it, hoping the problem will go away or be handled by his lobbyist friends and advisors.

We could start as early as the late 1980s with the embarrassing Keating Five incident, in which McCain used his influence in Congress to help out his friend and donor, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. Keating spent five years in jail on corruption charges stemming from his influencing McCain and four other senators. McCain brushes off questions about the incident, saying he's paid for it and learned his lesson. It seems the lesson was "let other people handle economics. It's not that big of a deal anyhow."

It case you haven't been listening to the chatter on the economy in the past few months, here's an interesting mash-up video of exactly where McCain and his supporters are on the issue:

more:http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/462

[Karenina]

12. bttt!