"While Sen. John McCain's wife and father-in-law were investing with Charles H. Keating, Jr. in a shopping center, McCain was helping Keating battle federal regulators who questioned his operation of Lincoln Savings and Loan . . . [photo caption] Documents show that Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, and father-in-law, James W. Hensley (second from right) are the largest investors in Fountain Square Shopping Center. Their partnership is managed by subsidiaries of American Continental Corp., run by Charles H. Keating, Jr. (right). But John McCain contends there was no conflict in his helping Keating battle federal regulators." The Arizona Republic - October 8, 1989
"Sen. John McCain had more than a constituent relationship with Charles H. Keating, Jr. prior to 1987 . . . the McCains - sometimes with their daughter and baby sitter - made at least nine trips at Keating's expense from August 1984 to August 1986 aboard either Keating's American Continental Corporation's jet or chartered planes and helicopters owned by Resorts International. Three of the trips were for vacations at Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas." The Arizona Republic - October 8, 1989
"McCain, in a radio talk-show appearance last week condemned disclosures of his family's ties to Keating as "irresponsible journalism." The Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989
" . . . both in telephone conversations with reporters and on a live radio talk show, the Republican senator was far from calm. He was agitated. Angry. And the way he dealt with unpleasant questions was to bully the questioners . . . 'You're a liar,' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when an Arizona Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife, Cindy McCain, and Keating . . . 'That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,' McCain sneered later in the same conversation. 'You do understand English, don't you?' ". . . Not content with just bullying reporters, McCain tried belittling them: 'It's up to you to find that out, kids.' . . . McCain wasn't talking to liars. He wasn't talking to juveniles. The senator was talking to two reporters." The Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989
http://www.usvetdsp.com/story22.htm Did George Bush Sr's involvement in the BCCI scandal back in the 80's (a hell of a lot bigger than the Keating Five) and Iran/Contra affect his candidacy, incumbent or not? It didn't, and there's your answer for McCain.
Personally, I think John McCain is a warmonger Vietnam vet who still suffers from PTSD after all these years. "Di De Mao! Di De Mao!!" He still refers to Asians as 'gooks'...to me that's a hell of a lot worse than any piddly financial scandal. I never said he was corrupt... I'm sure the voters will be reminded of that scandalous fiasco if every few minutes of television and radio advertising as soon as McCain gets the nomination. If McCain wins the nomination, this is one of the episodes in his past that the Dimocrats will exploit. McCain is weak on immigration, so he cannot use that issue against the Dimocrats as Romney or Paul could. McCain will not get the support of those opposed to amnesty for illegals or many evangelicals for who he has shown contempt in the past, so he would easily be defeated by Nobama or Clinton. They really don't want this piece of information to get out. The news media prefers to sweep this under the carpet for now. Wait till he is picked for the Republican candidate for president. You will see everything he has ever done. It will be to late then. I hope people that nominate him enjoys either Obama who is apparently affiliated with Ellison, or Clinton, record already known. That is why I am voting for Mitt Romney.
McCain is for raising gas taxes, illegal immigrants, and just about anything else that the Democratic platform is for. The Republican party as whole seems to not care. Nor do they care that he has the opposite stance on immigration than that held by the rest of America. His apparent stance to stay in Iraq is a mind bender too.
He strikes me as being way to dangerous to let into the oval office.
I want my son home from Iraq and I won't count on McCain for that! this is why they keep saying Romney isn't electable. they have dirt on McCain and are ready to use it. I think we can all agree it's important to have all the facts. All the other candidates would say "I did nothing wrong, the investigation shows that", because they have no character.
McCain calls the Keating scandal "my asterisk." - even though the investigation showed he did nothing illegal. Over the years, his opponents have failed to turn it into a period.
It started in '87. Charles H Keating Jr. was in trouble.The government was going to seize his Lincoln Savings and Loan He had spread a lot of money around Washington, and he "called in his favors". (he'd already made contributions)
He went to Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., whom he had given a lot of campaign money, and a loyal friend of Keatings. Keating got DeConcini to organize a meeting with regulators to tell them to get off Lincoln's back. The senator set up a meeting with five other senators and the regulators. One of them was McCain.
Keating had held fundraisers for McCain in the past. DeConcini wanted McCain to fly to San Francisco with him and talk to the regulators. McCain refused. Keating then went to see him, and McCain said he would attend the meeting to see if Keating was getting treated fairly but that was all.
The first meeting was in DeConcini's office. Those attending were Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, as well as four senators: DeConcini, McCain, Alan Cranston, D-Calif., and John Glenn, D-Ohio.
At that meeting Gray said that he worried about the big picture and he didn't have any specific information about Lincoln. He said bank regulators in San Francisco would be versed in that, not him, so he set up a meeting between the senators and the San Francisco regulators.
The same four senators attended, along with Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich. Also at the meeting were William Black, then deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., James Cirona, president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Michael Patriarca, director of agency functions at the FSLIC.
McCain had refused DeConcini's request to meet with the Lincoln auditors themselves. In Worth the Fighting For, McCain wrote that he remained "a little troubled" at the prospect, "but since the chairman of the bank board didn't seem to have a problem with the idea, maybe a discussion with the regulators wouldn't be as problematic as I had earlier thought."
Black said McCain started that meeting with saying "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion," McCain said. "ACC (American Continental Corp.) is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them. . . . I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." The meeting went on. McCain was quiet. DeConcini carried the conversation. When the regulators announced they were going to recommend criminal charges against Keating, they didn't respond. Their purpose to was make sure treatment was fair, not to get involved in a criminal case.
"In the case of Senator McCain, there is very substantial evidence that he thought he had an understanding with Senator DeConcini's office that certain matters would not be gone into at the meeting with (bank board) Chairman (Ed) Gray," Bennett said.
"Moreover, there is substantial evidence that, as a result of Senator McCain's refusal to do certain things, he had a fallout with Mr. Keating."
The investigation that followed found that McCain was the least culpable, along with Glenn. McCain attended the meetings but did nothing afterward to stop Lincoln's death spiral.
Lincoln was the most expensive failure in the national S&L scandal. Taxpayers lost more than $2 billion on the bailout. In the end, McCain received only a mild rebuke from the Ethics Committee for exercising "poor judgment" for intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating. Still, he felt tarred by the affair.
McCain is known for telling the truth, even if it doesn't put him in a good light. All he had to do was point out they found he didn't nothing wrong. But he has more integrity than that. He said "The appearance of it was wrong," McCain said. "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." He said "I was judged eventually, after three years, of using, quote, poor judgment, and I agree with that assessment."
That just makes me trust him more. He didn't try to cover up his mistake. He didn't try to save Keating, he looked into the situation to make sure things were done fairly. That was his mistake. It disgusts me the way the Republican establishment will look the other way on almost everything with John McCain. You have the Keating 5 savings & loan Scandal back in the 80's and all the flip flopping he's done ever since... and the establishment wants to say he's grown?
I'm voting for someone with a clean record, who doesn't have scandal in his past, who's worked in the real economy, and ran an entire state...
I'm voting for Mitt Romney! |
