R
Raymond
Guest
I AM NOT A CROOK
(From the Drudge Report) "Sen. John McCain said yesterday that he has
'never done any favors for anybody -- lobbyist or special interest
group,' as his presidential campaign issued a statement denouncing
allegations of legislative favoritism as 'gutter politics.'"
Excuse me ... does anyone remember the savings and loan scandal in the
late 1980's? And the Keating five? See: [The Keating Five ] Senator
McCain, I guess, hopes that we have all lapsed into dementia. He
apparently has.
--- George W. Potts
The Keating Five Senator McCain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five
Keating Five
McCain's upwards political trajectory was jolted when he became
enmeshed in the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s. In the context of
the Savings and Loan crisis of that decade, Charles Keating, Jr.'s
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, a subsidiary of his American
Continental Corporation, was insolvent due to some bad loans. In order
to regain solvency, Lincoln sold investment in a real estate venture
as a FDIC insured savings account. This caught the eye of federal
regulators who were looking to shut it down. It is alleged that
Keating contacted five senators to whom he made contributions. McCain
was one of those senators and he met at least twice in 1987 with Ed
Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, seeking to prevent
the government's seizure of Lincoln. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain
received approximately $112,000 in political contributions from
Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife and her father
had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a
year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family and
baby-sitter made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes
aboard the American Continental jet. After learning Keating was in
trouble over Lincoln, McCain paid for the air trips totaling $13,433.
[74]
Eventually the real estate venture failed, leaving many broke. Federal
regulators ultimately filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and
fraud suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's
deposits to his family and into political campaigns. The five senators
came under investigation for attempting to influence the regulators.
In the end, none of the senators were convicted of any crime, but
McCain did receive a rebuke from the Senate Ethics Committee for
exercising "poor judgment" for intervening with the federal regulators
on behalf of Keating. On his Keating Five experience, McCain said:
"The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group
of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it
conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the
wrong thing to do."
McCain survived the political scandal by, in part, becoming very
friendly with the political press; with his blunt manner, he became a
frequent guest on television news shows, especially once the 1991 Gulf
War began and his military and POW experience became in demand.McCain
began campaigning against lobbyist money in politics from then on. His
1992 re-election campaign found his opposition split between
Democratic community and civil rights activist Claire Sargent and
impeached and removed former Governor Evan Mecham running as an
independent.Although Mecham garnered some hard-core conservative
support, Sargent's campaign never gathered momentum and the Keating
Five affair did not dominate discussion. McCain again won handily,
getting 56 percent of the vote to Sargent's 32 percent and Mecham's 11
percent.
McCain remained in the Senate and he made campaign finance reform a
key legislative interest. The scandal was followed by a number of
attempts to adopt campaign finance reform -- spearheaded by U.S. Sen.
David Boren (D-OK) -- but most attempts died in committee. A weakened
reform was passed in the first year of President Bill Clinton's first
term of office. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed
until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act.
(From the Drudge Report) "Sen. John McCain said yesterday that he has
'never done any favors for anybody -- lobbyist or special interest
group,' as his presidential campaign issued a statement denouncing
allegations of legislative favoritism as 'gutter politics.'"
Excuse me ... does anyone remember the savings and loan scandal in the
late 1980's? And the Keating five? See: [The Keating Five ] Senator
McCain, I guess, hopes that we have all lapsed into dementia. He
apparently has.
--- George W. Potts
The Keating Five Senator McCain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five
Keating Five
McCain's upwards political trajectory was jolted when he became
enmeshed in the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s. In the context of
the Savings and Loan crisis of that decade, Charles Keating, Jr.'s
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, a subsidiary of his American
Continental Corporation, was insolvent due to some bad loans. In order
to regain solvency, Lincoln sold investment in a real estate venture
as a FDIC insured savings account. This caught the eye of federal
regulators who were looking to shut it down. It is alleged that
Keating contacted five senators to whom he made contributions. McCain
was one of those senators and he met at least twice in 1987 with Ed
Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, seeking to prevent
the government's seizure of Lincoln. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain
received approximately $112,000 in political contributions from
Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife and her father
had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a
year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family and
baby-sitter made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes
aboard the American Continental jet. After learning Keating was in
trouble over Lincoln, McCain paid for the air trips totaling $13,433.
[74]
Eventually the real estate venture failed, leaving many broke. Federal
regulators ultimately filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and
fraud suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's
deposits to his family and into political campaigns. The five senators
came under investigation for attempting to influence the regulators.
In the end, none of the senators were convicted of any crime, but
McCain did receive a rebuke from the Senate Ethics Committee for
exercising "poor judgment" for intervening with the federal regulators
on behalf of Keating. On his Keating Five experience, McCain said:
"The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group
of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it
conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the
wrong thing to do."
McCain survived the political scandal by, in part, becoming very
friendly with the political press; with his blunt manner, he became a
frequent guest on television news shows, especially once the 1991 Gulf
War began and his military and POW experience became in demand.McCain
began campaigning against lobbyist money in politics from then on. His
1992 re-election campaign found his opposition split between
Democratic community and civil rights activist Claire Sargent and
impeached and removed former Governor Evan Mecham running as an
independent.Although Mecham garnered some hard-core conservative
support, Sargent's campaign never gathered momentum and the Keating
Five affair did not dominate discussion. McCain again won handily,
getting 56 percent of the vote to Sargent's 32 percent and Mecham's 11
percent.
McCain remained in the Senate and he made campaign finance reform a
key legislative interest. The scandal was followed by a number of
attempts to adopt campaign finance reform -- spearheaded by U.S. Sen.
David Boren (D-OK) -- but most attempts died in committee. A weakened
reform was passed in the first year of President Bill Clinton's first
term of office. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed
until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act.