McCain has spoke ad nauseam about Keating 5
Posted By: as has media over and over and over on 2008-10-14
In Reply to: and also.. - shelly
Get over it already!
The corrupt ACORN bunch are still at it and Obama is backing them every inch of the way. They are his push into office don't ya know?
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Let's talk about McCain and the Keating Five or his
Let's talk about how he left his wife who waited for him while he was in prison for five years. Then he dumped her because she was disfigured in an accident. Now he has Cindy who makes life wonderful with $100 mil a year. He needs to be president to bring something to the table for HER because his war vet thing is nice but not really as prestigious as PRES and as PRES he could do a lot for rich people like wifey.
Like JOHN MCCAIN - Keating 5 Scandal
I guess JM is a crook, too
http://www.mahalo.com/Keating_5_Scandal
Keating Five
History, it is said, is written by the victors. Or alternatively by John McCain, who has proclaimed that his role in the 1989 Keating Five corruption and racketeering scandal -- which led to the Lincoln Savings and Loan (S&L) bailout, part of the larger United States S&L crisis of the late 1980's and 1990's -- is his "asterisk." Excuse me? His asterisk? This writer begs to differ.
But apparently the American corporate media agrees, judging by its all but collective failure to report on McCain's primary role in the one incident in American history where the exact same catalyst, government deregulation, led to a comparable financial shipwreck, albeit not on the same gargantuan scale as the present, historic economic collapse.
This is not to say that the S&L crisis was not big. To the contrary, the immensity of the Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse, indeed of the entire S&L sector--and John McCain's role in it--is impossible to overstate. At this point, a bit of historical context is in order.
It all began when Charles Keating's American Continental Corporation purchased Lincoln in 1984. In the span of five years, with Keating as chairman -- and with the S&L industry newly deregulated -- Lincoln's assets ballooned from 1.1 billion to 5.5 billion. Much of this booty was the result of using customers' federally insured deposits to engage in high risk, highly speculative real estate and junk bond dealings.
By 1986, Lincoln had $135 million in undisclosed losses, and they had surpassed the newly imposed cautionary 10 percent "direct investment" limit of institutional assets by $600 million dollars. It doesn't take a financial wizard to recognize that this did not bode well for Lincoln's individual depositors -- or for the government's insurance fund, the Federal Depositor Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In 1989, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), growing increasingly alarmed by Lincoln's use of FDIC-insured funds for commercial real estate deals, initiated a probe into Lincoln's free-wheeling investment practices.
Once Keating got wind of the investigation, he decided to capitalize on his political investments, his estimated $1.3 million in campaign contributions to various U. S. Senators. And John McCain, the deregulator's deregulator, was the recipient of the most cash, $112,000 -- which may not seem like much by today's standards, but it was a bundle back in the 1980's.
And that doesn't include the other fringe benefits afforded to McCain, like private jet rides to Keating's opulent Bahamas estate, myriad fund raisers for McCain's House and Senate campaigns, or Cindy McCain's (and her father's) involvement with Keating in a "sweetheart" shopping mall deal in Arizona. As the Feds closed in, Keating decided to call in his markers.
Keating orchestrated at least two April 1987 meetings between several San Francisco FHLBB board members, including its chairman Edwin Gray, and five U. S. Senators -- The Keating Five -- including the good John McCain. In spite of this blatant obstruction of justice, the San Francisco regulators found Lincoln guilty of unsound lending practices and recommended its seizure. The Keating Five exerted pressure and the takeover was delayed for 2 years. Gray was replaced. Meanwhile, Lincoln's customers were steered into extremely risky, uninsured investments, junk bonds held by Keating's American Continental Corporation, which ultimately went belly-up in April 1989. Lincoln was finally seized by the FHLBB that same month.
Meanwhile, more than 21,000 mostly elderly depositors lost their life's savings in the sordid affair, to the tune of $285 million, prompting an approximate $2 billion federal government bail-out. Keating was found guilty of fraud and racketeering and served 50 months of a 12-year prison sentence. McCain was cleared of any wrongdoing and chided for "poor judgment" by the Senate Ethics Committee.
In the two decades since this disgraceful affair, McCain has maintained that he did not knowingly do anything wrong. All the money and graft did not influence his actions.
Not so, according to Keating who is quoted in the 2003 book, Philosophical Dimensions of Public Policy. When asked if his political donations amounted to quid pro quo, Keating reportedly said "I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."
No such candor from John McCain. To let the senator from Arizona tell it, he was only helping Keating because he was one of the largest employers in his state. Besides that, Keating's accountants vouched for Lincoln's financial viability. Even Alan Greenspan authored a favorable report commissioned by Keating, McCain routinely deflects. How could anyone blame him for not knowing that Keating was looting Lincoln? (This is kind of like the Bush Administration's circular defense of the massive "intelligence failure" with regard to Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.)
At any rate, that is McCain's story, and he has been sticking to it for almost two decades now. Not that he has had to talk much about it in recent years. He has been too busy straight-talking about ethics and campaign finance reforms, not unlike the burglar who repents and becomes an anti-theft crusader. And lo and behold, so far it has worked. In perhaps the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy, it would seem that McCain has succeeded in making The Keating Five mess his self-proclaimed asterisk. And who can blame him for trying to sanitize this most shameful chapter of his political career? But the so-called Fourth Estate's silence is another story altogether.
It is nothing less that mind-boggling that most of the media establishment, America's supposed "watchdog" is ignoring this crucial chapter of the McCain story. Really, when you think about it, it is obscene; and an objective history will judge them harshly. Particularly when one considers that this is the same media that acted as drum majors in the run-up to the Iraq War, and were enthusiastically embedded with the military in the delusional days of "shock and awe." Or were they in bed with the Bush Administration?
This is the very same media that obsessed over Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes and savaged AL Gore for inconsequential things like visiting a Buddhist temple or kissing his wife too passionately after his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Committee...and who barely made a sound when the Supreme Court basically overturned an American Presidential election. And it is the same media that was basically complicit in the swiftboating of the decorated Vietnam veteran, John Kerry.
The same press corps that has rendered the Democrats spineless and, for the last eight years, afraid to act as a true opposition party (and too fainthearted to raise the Keating Five in this election cycle) lest they too be savaged by the Republicans who, with a wink and a nod, constantly rail against the "liberal media" who have now apparently taken a vow of silence about John McCain's "asterisk."
In a clear-eyed, reasonable, straight-talking society, the Keating Five would be the lead of any John McCain biography, second only to the Hanoi Hilton. Some might even argue that the monumental racketeering scandal should take a back seat to nothing in the story of this man who would be president -- particularly at a time when this nation's economic infrastructure is literally crumbling. Count this writer in that number.
Two words... KEATING FIVE!! nm
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The Keating Scandal
Over the weekend, John McCain's top adviser announced their plan to stop engaging in a debate over the economy and "turn the page" to more direct, personal attacks on Barack Obama.
In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to change the subject from the central question of this election. Perhaps because the policies McCain supported these past eight years and wants to continue are pretty hard to defend.
But it's not just McCain's role in the current crisis that they're avoiding. The backward economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis are looking more and more like the other major financial crisis of our time.
During the savings and loan crisis of the late ྌs and early ྖs, McCain's political favors and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan, one of the largest in the country. More than 23,000 investors lost their savings. Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion.
Sound familiar?
In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee. The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts -- and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain.
The point of the film and the web site is that John McCain still hasn't learned his lesson.
And this time, McCain's bankrupt economic philosophy has put our economy at the brink of collapse and put millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes.
Watch the video to see why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment is a recipe for deepening the crisis:
http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
It's no wonder John McCain would rather spend the last month of this election smearing Barack's character instead of talking about the top priority issue for voters.
It's long (13 minutes) but information every voter should know.
Why don't you ever mention the other 4 in the Keating 5 were....
Democrats? Three of whom were much more than "rebuked." The Keating 5 was a small part of the article. The lead with the pic of the "indicted" guy has been refuted...and Obama also has an "indicted" friend..Rezko. But you did not bring that up either.
Google and look.....for instance the Keating 5....
one of those was also Senator John Glenn of Ohio, a Democrat. Did we see HIS name prominently in the letter? People love John Glenn and NO ONE ever mentions HE was one of the Keating 5. In fact, all the other 4 were Democrats. John Glenn and John McCain were the only 2 that the senate ethics committee said were NOT centrally involved and cleared of impropriety. Both ran for re-election the next year and both were re-elected. And John McCain has apologized for any involvement, said it was poor judgment, and mentioned that again at the Saddleback interview. At least he admits when he is wrong and takes responsibility. Yet another reason I like him.
THAT is what I mean about getting the WHOLE story.
And he's related to Charles Keating!
nm
Keating 5 cost taxpayers $125 billion.
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You call Keating, Ayers, ACORN et all serious debate?
I don't. How about the economy, the wars, the exploding national debt, unemployment, homelessness. That's the issues I'd like to see discussed and your proposed solutions, not who can sling the most mud. Get it?
He also spoke of h-e-ll
and the repercussions of not accepting him as Christ. He also flat out told the pharisees that they were going to h-e-ll for what they were doing. He didn't just preach love. He told people how it was. He warned us that there is a h-e-ll and people go there. You can't teach the good without the bad.
Huckabee spoke about this the other day
He said a very astute financial guy with decades of eperience had noticed a very unusual trend in the market last week; that every day at the same time late in the day, the market would begin selling off huge volumes, just in time where it could not rebound and then this would start again the next day, with no rebound gain. He questioned economic terrorism then.
And it did make us wonder then if this thing was being manipulated. When the government over the weekend began singing how they were going to put money in the banks that was a big sign for me that there may be something to the suspicions. This gave governments an exception to buy into banks, thereby starting the ball of socialism. Government should never ever be involved in banks like this.
I don't think for a moment this has anything to do with not paying China off because China has been hacking into the World Trade Bank in Europe for over a year.... a year! And their people can't keep them out. So, that tells me China has been involved in this manipulation for a long time. They managed to get very private financial documents with loan information and procurements on them that would allow them to really manipulation behind the scenes with all that information they have.
I don't doubt China has EVERYTHING to do with this. But if we keep buying more of their junk and refuse to buy anything but their junk, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. We should start demanding our government NOT import any more goods from China and that our companies going over there to save taxes be given tax exemptions ONLY if they bring all their business back to this country.
When I was growing up, my great aunts always said keep us out of the United Nations and don't do business with communist countries or we would regret it one day. They were right!
Obama spoke himself about
x
The people spoke
The Supreme Court over-ruled their decision. They were given another opportunity to make their voices heard and rejected the legality of gay marriage a second time.
This is the democratic process at work: the majority rules. Funny how quickly that goes by the wayside when the liberal shoe is on the other foot.
I'm glad you spoke your mind.
You've got more guts than I do. They would have definitely gotten a dirty look from me, but I wouldn't have had the courage to say what I felt.
I hope they weren't able to "snare" too many impressionable young people with false promises and other lies.
Did you hear that they're even telling would-be recruits how to pass drug screen tests so that they can still get into the military even if they're on drugs? I don't think there's anything they WON'T do or say to meet recruitment quotas.
seems to me thousands spoke this weekend
Seems to me most of the country takes Cindy Sheehan seriously and are behind her 100%. This weekends protests in DC, CA, NY, Ohio and other states prove it..When you look at the anti war protests compared to the pro war protests, tells you what the majority of the country wants..ending of the Iraq war.
A Kaydie clone just spoke!
nm
someplace where they spoke English
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The mayor of Chicago also spoke this...sm
morning explaining the need for city employee layoffs.
The people spoke with their vote.
Changes should happen slowly to ensure we really want those changes to be put into place and to give time for any and all actions to be ordered.
It was voted on. It was a legitimate vote.
I think it sends a clear message that everyone is not ready for this type of change yet.
It's our (those who support Prop 8) country, too.
Well, if they spoke, that means I drop
everything and bow to people who do not have the last word on what the administration does.
From the way Fitzgerald spoke in the press conference...sm
S. Libby has A LOT to be worried about. It seems he's a bald face liar, and I think what would be interesting to find out is why would he lie and say he didn't even know who Plame was under oath having been briefed on her at least 4 times before coming to court. I smell smoke...
Exactly. After Galloway spoke out they tied him to al Qaeda. sm
Of course, the man must be a terrorist sympathizer because he has the guts to tell it like it is. Just like they call you an antisemite when you say anything about Israel, conspiracy theorist and nut bag, etc., if you speak out against Bush. See the pattern?
You're going to be blasted..you spoke against Obama
sad but true
Um no, Palin spoke and did herself in.... didn't you hear her? sm
No media, even intelligent media, could make up what she said. She said ignorant statements out of her own mouth, rallying the crowds and saying Obama pals around with terrorists. She ruined any chances McGeezer had, not that he had much of a chance but you MUST know that she has hurt the republican party, except for the most ignorant of them.
Color me blind but name a case in which a republican spoke out...sm
and liberals started calling and threatening his life. I'm sure it happens but can you think of a case right off hand?
BTW, if you post it on the conservative board I'll read it there.
the moral majority spoke in CA but that isnt good enough
They banned it, voted against it. The state of CA spoke but the gays are not happy with that and have to march. They will push and push till they get their way. Whether it is against God or not. what a shame. 
Bill Ayers spoke at Millersville University in PA
Yesterday. This is a college that prepares students for teaching jobs. You can see part of his speech here:
http://www.wgal.com/video/18971823/index.html
There was a one-on-one interview with him at:
http://www.wgal.com/video/18971823/index.html
No, not making it up...watched him as he spoke, no tele, no speech prepared.
Stock Market diving since Obama spoke today.
nm
Janeane Garofalo spoke today. Glad she represents
nm
Why are you McCain people so desperate? You are just like McCain. No plan. Just criticism of the
other candidate. I guess you want the same old thing we have had for the past 8 years. God forbid McCain win with that wild woman, Palin.
McCain
Not only will he refuse to get out of Iraq unless there is some sort of clear victory, even if it takes "100 years" or "1000 years" (his words), jokes about how to handle Iran is "Bom, bom, bom, bom, bomb Iran" (to the tune of a Beach Boys song), he also wants to kick Russia out of the G8 and not let China or India in. Way to place nice with the up-and-coming superpowers - I'm sure that will do great things for our country in years to come.
There are certain things I like about him (strict belief in Geneva Convention, willing to work across party lines), but his warmongering side scares the you-know-what out of me.
McCain's age
Whether his military uniform helps his image depends on what kind of world we want to be living in tomorrow, not the one we live in now. A lot of people will be showing up at the polls to say that status quo is not acceptable, especially when it comes to solving problems by waging wars. Concerns over his age, senility and/or Alzheimer’s are legitimate if you do the math. Those possibilities are very real and could just as easily happen early in his term as later. He has shown some early signs like his problems with word retrieval, mispronunciation, confusion, forgetting what he is saying and blank staring spells.
The teleprompter comment is also kind of a cheap shot. Besides that, it is not true, unless you believe everything you hear on Fox or YouTube. He is an excellent orator and delivered very spontaneous and inspiring responses in the town hall meetings during the primaries and in news conferences. YHe is a much better speaker than McCain.
McCain....you mean
I can't believe anyone would vote for him after what Bush just did to us for 8 years.
Well, McCain's gas in his car came from
oil from a country that supports terrorism. McCain a supporter of terrorism? You can interpret this any way you like.
if McCain gets in
that will be the tenor of the New Secretary of State.
Why McCain?
http://www.johnmccain.com/Undecided/WhyMcCain.htm
McCain looks
like he hurts. It makes me uncomfortable to watch. Obama has a significantly larger amt of data in his mind (constitutional law professor, etc) to sort through, gather, and assemble before he responds to a question. It is to his favor that he does not immediately yelp out an answer like a trained seal.
Thank you. I think McCain's age ... sm
Is what worries me so much about this situation. I mean, people die at different ages, it's true, but if McCain were 20 years younger, I don't think I'd be quite as worried. But he's 72, has had skin cancer several times, and I read (haven't verified) that both his father and grandfather died suddenly of heart attacks when they were younger than he is now. Now that might not mean anything. After all, isnt' his mother in her 90s? But it just worries me. It would be different if he wanted Palin to have a cabinet position where she could, I don't know, hone her skills, cut her teeth in Washington, so to speak, but to put her is a position of leading our country if something happens to McCain? It just makes me very nervous.
Oh, of course. McCain will get the best...sm
Healthcare. Too bad for the rest of us peons though!
Still, the best healthcare in the U.S. can't turn back time and make him young again. He is really getting up there, and the campaign must be wearing on him. I don't know how any of them can stand all the travel that comes with campaigning.
The New McCain!
The Ugly New McCain
Wednesday, September 17, 2008; Page
Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred. "I broke my promise to always tell the truth," McCain said. Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.
The precise moment of McCain's abasement came, would you believe, not at some news conference or on one of the Sunday shows but on "The View," the daytime TV show created by Barbara Walters. Last week, one of the co-hosts, Joy Behar, took McCain to task for some of the ads his campaign has been running. One deliberately mischaracterized what Barack Obama had said about putting lipstick on a pig -- an Americanism that McCain himself has used. The other asserted that Obama supported teaching sex education to kindergarteners.
"We know that those two ads are untrue," Behar said. "They are lies."
Freeze. Close in on McCain. This was the moment. He has largely been avoiding the press. The Straight Talk Express is now just a brand, an ad slogan like "Home Cooking" or "We Will Not Be Undersold." Until then, it was possible for McCain to say that he had not really known about the ads, that the formulation "I approve this message" was just boilerplate. But he didn't.
"Actually, they are not lies," he said.
Actually, they are.
McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.
I am one of the journalists accused over the years of being in the tank for McCain. Guilty. Those doing the accusing usually attributed my feelings to McCain being accessible. This is the journalist-as-puppy school of thought: Give us a treat, and we will leap into a politician's lap.
Not so. What impressed me most about McCain was the effect he had on his audiences, particularly young people. When he talked about service to a cause greater than oneself, he struck a chord. He expressed his message in words, but he packaged it in the McCain story -- that man, beaten to a pulp, who chose honor over freedom. This had nothing to do with access. It had to do with integrity.
McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.
At a forum last week at Columbia University, McCain said, "But right now we have to restore trust and confidence in government." This was always the promise of John McCain, the single best reason to vote for him. America has been cheated on too many times -- the lies of Vietnam and Watergate and Iraq. So many lies. Who believes that in Afghanistan last month, only five civilians were killed by the American military in an airstrike, instead of the approximately 90 claimed by the Afghan government? Not me. I first gave up on the military during Vietnam and then again when it covered up the death of Pat Tillman, the Army Ranger and former NFL player who was killed in 2004 by friendly fire.
McCain was going to fix all that. He was going to look the American people in the eyes and say, not me. I will not lie to you. I am John McCain, son and grandson of admirals. I tell the truth.
But Joy Behar knew better. And so McCain lied about his lying and maybe thinks that if he wins the election, he can -- as he did in South Carolina -- renounce who he was and what he did and resume his old persona. It won't work. Karl Marx got one thing right -- what he said about history repeating itself. Once is tragedy, a second time is farce. John McCain is both.
cohenr@washpost.com
or like when McCain said . . .
Obama called her a pig and then on Monday said he didn't
it has to do with McCain and
Bush systematically deregulating (savings and loans - Keating 5) and wall street so that the souless corporations can do whatever they want without any limits. they have removed the safety factors built into the system after the great depression. Well, now we have the situation that deregulation brings. As Romney said at this years' repub convention - McCain is going to go at all the regulations on industry with a weed wacker.
McCain
Respecting his service to his country is one thing. He is only one of thousands who have done the same thing. or worse, died for their country, and are just as deserving of being honored as McCain. Trusting him to lead this country is another thing entirely.
Seeing as McCain may not . . .
live out his term, she is running for the top spot.
Does McCain even know what he is saying.
Maybe he had better hit the beach with the flip-flops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI&feature=PlayList&p=2F671A7FEF92B36B&index=3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK_9sI7hzAc&feature=PlayList&p=2F671A7FEF92B36B&index=10
He said, he said. I believe what McCain said,
you believe what Obama said. McCain said he told Obama he was going to suspend his campaign and when Obama spoke just now he stated the same thing, only says "I didn't know he meant it now" or some such. I don't buy that. He just didn't think McCain was serious. Turns out he was.
Can any McCain fan or Rep. tell me why
McCain has supported legislation to give tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs? I'm asking because I don't know. I figured you guys have read a lot of his stuff and thought you might know off the top of your head. I could always try to find it but am finding myself lazy tonight  and thought someone might be in the know without having to Google it.
And you think McCain is going to do any better?
What a mess!
Oh and saw on the news that this bailout will affect even the people who do live within their means because it means that the Jones' house that gets foreclosed on will reduce the amount my house is worth and therefore I lose too! Something needs to be done and quick!
It is not fair to simply point out Obama's plans when you do not mention McCain's either. What are McCain's plans? All he seems to do is "knock" Obama. Oh better consider what Palin has to say too, you know McCain is getting no younger or any healthier for that matter.
McCain
Someone with character....hmm. You best not vote then.
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