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."