It's starting to get some mention, however "sideways"
See, e.g.,
Dallas Morning News:
Both have some claim to the financial reform mantle – Mr. Obama is relatively new to Washington, and Mr. McCain seems to have learned his lesson and kept his distance from dangerous relationships since the Keating Five experience in the 1980s.
Argus Leader:
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.
***
Washington Post:
Even far from Washington, politics took a toll on Cindy McCain. In 1989, she was pulled into a Senate investigation that focused on her husband and four other senators who had intervened with regulators on behalf of savings-and-loan owner Charles Keating.
When questions arose about a vacation the McCains took to Keating's home in the Bahamas, Cindy McCain, as family bookkeeper, was asked to document that they had reimbursed the Keatings, but she could not. She has repeatedly cited the stress of the Keating Five scandal and pain from two back surgeries that same year as reasons for her dependence on painkillers.
Boston Globe:
In the early 1990s, McCain's political career was in jeopardy when he was accused of interfering with banking regulators during the savings and loan crisis on behalf of a major thrift in Arizona run by a McCain campaign contributor, Charles Keating. McCain and his family took several trips to the Bahamas with Keating, and McCain's wife invested in a Keating shopping center.
The Senate Ethics Committee concluded that McCain used "poor judgment" in the matter. McCain said he had learned his lesson and said he would try to stop the undue influence of major political contributors.
Politico (via Cleveland.com:
McCain is also seeking to claim that, in the words of a recent campaign advertisement, "Only proven reformers John McCain and Sarah Palin can fix" the crisis.
But the financial crisis has also raised an uncomfortable specter from McCain's past: The last American financial meltdown, the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then, McCain fought regulation while cultivating friends in the savings and loan industry, and narrowly escaped an end to his political career in the indictment of a wealthy supporter, Charles Keating.
Democrats Monday were eager to recall the scandal.
"Obviously McCain got his Ph.D. in market meltdowns from Professor Charles Keating," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic consultant.
"He has basically dedicated his career since that moment to the cleaning up of Washington," Holtz-Eakin said. "A major theme of this campaign is that we have now two candidates, Palin and McCain, who are dedicated to the kinds of reforms that are going to be necessary."
Just to name a few. I imagine it'll come up more throughout this week as the Wall Street "Crisis" continues...
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
