John McCain, surviving the Keating 5 political scandal

[Imagevision]

The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings. The Committee recommended censure for Cranston and criticized the other four for "questionable conduct."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

[FrenchieCat]

1. Seems like everything will be fair game this election....

or that is what keeps being repeated in the media.

Good. McCain has got slime all in his baggage.

[muryan]

2. I can see it now

If anyone brings this up....

"This just shows McCain has always been a true political maverick, he was accused along with 4 Democrats, crossing party lines to do so"

:banghead:

[McCamy Taylor]

3. The Vicki Isseman affair is more of the same. He is a serial money taker. Lots of ammo there.

[Cha]

4. So what was John Glenn

doing in that bunch?

[highplainsdem]

6. According to that Wikipedia article, both Glenn and McCain had "minimal" involvement.

And that Wikipedia article links to this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_The_New_York_Times#John_McCain-lobbyist_article_criticism

which points out:

The February 21, 2008 The New York Times published an article on John McCain's alleged relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman and other involvement with special interest groups. The article received a widespread criticism among both liberals and conservatives, McCain supporters and non-supporters as well as talk radio personalities. Robert S. Bennett, whom McCain had hired to represent him in this matter, defended McCain's character. Bennett, who was the special investigator during the Keating Five scandal that The Times revisited in the article, said that he fully investigated McCain back then and suggested to the Senate Ethics Committee to not pursue charges against McCain.

"And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest and honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him, and I think for the New York Times to dig this up just shows that Senator McCain's public statement about this is correct. It's a smear job. I'm sorry. "

When you have the man who was the special investigator during the Keating Five scandal still defending McCain and saying he'd recommended to the Senate Ethics Committe that MCCain be cut out of the case since "there was no evidence against him," this is NOT a charge that is likely to do much damage to McCain.

I suppose it's possible that someone has refuted what Bob Bennett said there, and perhaps Bennett hadn't told the Ethics Committee there was "no evidence" against McCain, but I haven't heard of any such refutation, so that much apparently is part of the history of this case.

In the transcript of the interview that quote is from (apparently a botched transcript since the wording "an honest and honest man" looks like a typo), Bennett -- who's a Democrat -- also suggests that the reason the Senate Ethics Committee insisted on investigating McCain was that otherwise they'd have been investigating only Democrats in that scandal:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331651,00.html

If your listeners want to know about the Keating Five case, I have a whole chapter on it. And what happened was that I had recommended that John McCain be cut out of it and not go forward. And, you know, I call it the way I see it. As I said, I'm a Democrat. And I recommended they go forward against Senators DeConcini, Senator Cranston and Senator Riegle.

But if you cut out John McCain, you would have had 28 days of public hearings with just Democrats in the dock. So, it's probably the first time in the history of the Senate that they rejected the advice of their counsel to exonerate a senator.

[GoldieAZ49]

5. Isn't that why McCain became a leader of campaign finance reform with a bipartisan

group of senators getting bills passed?

How does that work against him?

[TexasObserver]

7. Obama needs to drop the Keating Five in some comments directed at McCain

Let's see how McSame reacts to being asked "Senator Obama said your role in the Keating Five Scandal shows you have been in bed with those you're suppose to regulate - any comment, Senator?"

[Boz]

8. Thats what McCain wants and why hes taking shots at Obama people about Housing loans

he wants the Keating 5 fight NOW, They've planned for it, they have their battle plan ready and want the fight now.

Not late closer to the fall, when Obama will have more time to link more garbage to McCains footing.

Make no mistake you are watching a political chess match of epic proportions, McCain just opened with a classic opening and Obama is playing a new set of Moves, that McCain can't identify.

In chess there are literally games upon games that you can play by name and many know every move by heart.

The same goes in fencing. McCain is making by the book openings with this salvo and trying to control the fight.

What McCain either realizes or doesn't is that Obama s not left handed if its fencing and if its chess King 8 takes refrigerator 5 has no defense.