Will The Keating Five Scandal Come Back To Haunt McCain?

Last night on MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter wondered how John McCain is "getting a free ride" in this economic crisis after having been at the center of Keating Five, the last big banking scandal. He also notes that instead of coming out of that mess in favor of more regulation, McCain "did nothing to try to prevent another Savings and Loan crisis. He was missing in action." Watch:

The Wall Street Journal touches on the Keating Five scandal and suggests that McCain may have to answer to it after all:

The latest salvo came on Monday when an Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, invoked Charles Keating in hitting back at the McCain campaign for suggesting that Barack Obama had received a pass from the press. Burton said John McCain had been little scrutiny of his association to Keating despite being "centrally involved" in "the last major financial regulatory crisis, resulting in a huge bailout."

Asked by reporters if the Obama campaign planned to make Keating an issue, senior strategist Robert Gibbs was coy: "If we're going to talk about what's fair game in terms of people in a relationship, I don't see how... that wouldn't be important."

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who was labeled the leader of a "corrupt" machine in a McCain campaign ad yesterday, suggests he's all for it.

"You had the Keating Five. We had the biggest scandal in America called savings and loan. The biggest scandal, Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times. "So, if people start throwing dirt and mud, remember it comes back and hits you right in the face ... It would be a great ad. Remember: People lost their life savings, their own homes for a guy named Keating out of Arizona."

Comments

[jeffp26]

John McCain: Quick Temper; Slow Learner

[soithoni]

black heart

[applespider]

Did you know he was a POW?

[kay]

Keating Five is relevant because McCain remained an ideologically dogmatic conservative DESPITE his own experience with the possible downside.

He's unteachable.

[honeydiva]

and too rich to care.

[Progress08]

In the debates all Obama has to do is stand on some very obvious McCain lies and faults:

1. Keating 5
2. Phil Gramm the deregulator
3. McCains lobbyist rich staff
4. McCains corporate contributors where as Obamas are all citizens only
5. McCain's facetious blunder that he'd fire the head of the SEC (a power the president doesn't have).
6. His fiasco in viollating the Logan Act when his advisor went off to have a heart to heart with the Georgian president who promptly militarized and occupied the ossetia region.

[applespider]

And get McCain to show his temper.

[Ohg]

McCain new found false sense of Morality is pathetic. Is he going to take his shoe off and pound on the table? ..........­..........­.
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/09/23/anarchy-the-slippery-slope-of-deregulation/

[Ramirez]

The Keating 5 scandal occurred twenty years ago. It involved four Democrats. McCain was cleared of all charges.

If Obama runs with this, it will look like it's the best he's got on McCain. Obama will look like a straw-grasping empty suit.

[HST]

"The Keating 5 scandal occurred twenty years ago."

You can stop right there.
Or add: McCain has since done nothing about it.
The rest of your post is blah blah blah.

[kamenwati]

It is a part of McCain's record in the Senate, a record he is clearly trying to run away from, but which the American people need to be informed about. McCain can sling the mud about Rezko and Ayers, which are about nothing, but he can't take the fact that he was square in the middle of the last major economic meltdown in this country. It doesn't matter what Dems were involved at the time. I don't see any of their names on the Presidential tickets.

[ThunderclapNewman]

McCain was NOT cleared of all charges.

He was reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee for exercising "poor judgment."

His judgment hasn't improved.

[Ramirez]

"The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was also minimal, and he too was cleared of all charges against him.["

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

[Aleka4]

That doesn't stop republicans from grasping at even greater, older, removed straws...w­hy is it not "straw grasping" when the GOP does it?

OH thats right. Because when the GOP does it, it is a good idea, when dems do it, it isn't.

You guys must be fearing the Keating ghost. Good.

[Norsky]

Oh contrare dear friend. McManiac will look like a chump when he trots out the "well those guys were involved too!" defense.

He is still in office and he is running for Pres.

[Ramirez]

McCain was the only Republican tangled up in the Keating Five and he has been attacked with that for twenty years.

Do you think he won't have an answer when they come at him with that THIS time?

[keepacoolhead]

A vote for McCain/Palin will get the same people back in power that have been ruining the country the last 14 years. McCain exploits every loophole of the campaign finance reform he WROTE (how is that for integrity?) The Keating 5 needs to come back to haunt him, because he is still that kind of man. It's the media's job to keep that up. Obama said he wouldn't and I doubt he will.

[TGCNY]

If You were The Boss... which team would you hire?

With America facing historic debt, multiple war fronts, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, skyrocketing Federal spending, mortgage crisis, bank foreclosures, etc. etc., this is an unusually critical election year.

Let's look at the educational background of the candidates and see what they bring to the job:

Barack Obama:
Occidental College - Two years.
Columbia University - B.A. political science with a specialization in international relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) (Attorney), (Magna Cum Laude)

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.) (Attorney)

VS.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank 894 out of 899 (meaning that, like George Bush, McCain was at the bottom of his class)

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in journalism

Now, which team are you going to hire to lead the most influential nation in the world facing historic debt, multiple war fronts, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, skyrocketing Federal spending, mortgage crisis, bank foreclosures, highest unemployment since the Great Depression , .... THINK FUTURE

[imusintheevening]

You can add to Obama's education achievments the President of the Harvard Law Review:

Using a competitive process that takes into account first-year grades, an editing exercise, and a written commentary on a court decision, The Harvard Law Review selects between 41 and 43 editors annually from the second-year Law School class, which numbers 560.

Two editors from each of first-year class's seven sections (fourteen in all) are selected half by their first year grades and half by their scores on the writing competition. Another twenty are selected solely on their scores on the writing competition. The other seven to nine are selected by a discretionary committee, either to fulfill the review's race-based affirmative action program, to select students who just missed the cut by either of the other two processes, or by some other criteria as the committee sees fit.

Prominent alumni of the Harvard Law Review include Supreme Court Justices Edward Sanford, Felix Frankfurter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama, Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Charles Hamilton Houston, Alger Hiss, Archibald MacLeish, Secretary of Transportation and Brown v. Board of Education attorney William Coleman, Jr., Judge Richard Posner, Chief Judge Henry Friendly, Chief Judge Michael Boudin, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox, print and broadcast journalist Jeffrey Toobin, ...

[jimme]

This reminds me of Jethro Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies who thought,along with the family,that he was the educated one because he "graudated from the 6th grade".
That's McCain's only hope,is that these 6th grade graduates vote for him.

[mcgreen]

To be fair there were some democrats who bought in on the craze to wildly deregulate everything.

The tired old saw from business that 'What's good for business is good for the country' is so untrue. In this case big business profits extravagantly and dumps all losses on the taxpayers.

I'm tired of a country that bends over backwords to benefit corporate america and the super elite leaving crumbs IF there are any for the rest of us.

It's time to vote in Obama to push thru a change in focus, we need to invest in the long term benefits for our country and our children.

[FrictionSoul]

Wait a minute. If you're talking about the Gramm-Leach Act of 1999 that directly led to this mess, not a single Demo voted 'yea' on it.

[ThunderclapNewman]

Fritz Hollings of SC did vote for it.

But he was the only Dem who did.

[QuakerBeach]

Agree - Gramm-Leach-Biley Act. And Gramm, as in Phil, McCain's close friend and lead economic advisor.

[nutty4tahoe]

.....and the apple apparently doesn't fall very far from the tree. This past summer McCain's son, who was a board member at Silver State Bank of Nevada, quietly removed himself from his position just weeks before the FDIC shut down his bank. Apparently McCain taught his son everything he knew....

[CharlesJ]

According to the fed, this mess has been going on for many years... hmmm keating 5 was many years ago.... so, I guess this is fair game. I would say proceed with caution, stay on point and do not make it personal. There is an old saying in the business world, "This is not Personal, it is just Business", keep it this way. Our government is one huge corporation that has been completely mismanaged, the Keating 5 scandal was the beginning of it, now we are feel the full effect of corruption, out right greed and of course and lastly, the results of the Gramm, McCain removal of all governmental oversight of our markets. This should have never happened and McCain, Gramm and all those are at fault. The idea that McCain would try to put any measure of blame on Obama is pure political expediency, and lies. McCain has been in office almost as long as my daughter has been alive, and he has done nothing but seek deregulation our economy, to the point of failure.

[newhouse1]

Enough with the double standards. McCain was up to his eyeballs in the Keating 5 scandal, and never repented. Maverick didn't come from lessons learned in that scandal, it was from being shuned by Repubs at the time, no safe haven with Dems, and the people of AZ kept re-electing him! Although 20+ years ago, it is still relevant and frames McCain's perspectives.

If media and surrogates and campaign operatives can raise the spectre of Obama being a muslim saying his early childhood education 30+ years ago is valid to talk about, then whoa baby, let the Keating 5 bad-times roll! Mc and Palin are truly a mind boggling pair. Repubs should have know better.

[wisdom101]

You know this doesn't make any sense. Do you think Barack is responsible for failed Wall Street.

It's like this: Ok, I get a mortgage from Country Wide and it's a sound mortage transaction, I find out later the CEO is going to jail, do I cancel my mortgage ? No , so if Barack recieved money from them so what ?

Just because I take your money doesn't mean I agree with your poitions. is it possible you are given me your money because you agree with my postion.

If Barack would have taken the money after the market collaspsed that's a different story.

[DCinFrance]

Don't you just love it? Finally this guy is being called out into the open by the MSM. Now, I just have to find what I did with the respect I had for this pillar of democracy.

[Momma4Obama]

LOL! When you find yours, help my husband find his? I think he's still drinking the Kool-Aid (but NOT out of one of MY cups!) LOL!

[white mende man]

Deja Vu all over again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBCAaulG-k

[smoovejef]

Obama needs to stick to the script. Showing McCain to be a deregulated hothead is only part of the battle plan. The single biggest reason McCain is behind is because he spends so much time talking about what Obama would do wrong, instead of what he will do right. That's because he has no plan. We all know that. But BO has to also show that he DOES have a plan. He's trying to convince swing voters that their vote will count FOR something, instead of just AGAINST McCain. Everytime Mac opens his mouth, his foot goes in. The campaign's fear is that Mac and Palin both implode together, hence the media blackout. All they've done is ensure a hostile media interpretation of their answers at the debates.
BO knows what he's doing, Biden is on the attack, and Palin won't even talk to her own press corp. Spin that down til election day? Not likely.

[argent1]

Mc feels he's been exhonerated in the K5 debacle. Sure. To those who screw up repeatedly without remorse, the universe catches up to you sooner or later. Melanoma is nature's way of telling Mc something he won't admit -unworthy to lead.

[white mende man]

As we say here in the South: Is Pork Chop Greasy?

[ErnestineBass]

Yep. Especially when the hog was fattened up on bad apples.

[ENOUGH1]

Although McKeating was not charged with any criminal activity in the Keating 5 Scandal he was charged with "Poor Judgement". Do you want him to handle the USA with his "Poor Judgement".

McKeating is in Meltdown Mode.

[Chapmanp2]

There is was & always has been speculation regarding the reason McCain didn't go down in the K5 scandal. Most people believe he was the first to roll when the K hit the fan. If you pair that with his willingness to provide information & produce propoganda for the enemy in Nam it all adds up...
Why the numbers in polls show him anywhere close is beyond me & probably way more indicative of a willingness to skew the polls to keep it close in public perception than a true indicator of where voters are at...

[DoTheMath]

I have a secret fear that the Republicans are going to great lengths to skew the polls so it won't look so obvious when they rig the election results. But don't listen to me; I'm paranoid.

[ErnestineBass]

You got that right.

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

McCain has always been adept at covering his own backside.

[Nancy84]

Don't you people know..... Fox News is the only true source of information? All other news sources are run by the communists. ... or would that be the Muslims? Or the sexists? Or........­...(fill in the blank of the day)