Remembering the "Keating 5"

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In April of 1989, Senator John McCain, a former Viet Nam prisoner of war had came to national attention for the second time. Not with honor and dignity however, but rather undisputable corruption and unethical interfearence into an ongoing investigation of a personal friend Charles Keating and his Lincoln Savings & Loan. This scandal has hardly come to the surface in this election and since many young and first time voters were too young or not yet born, I thought it important to revisit that dark day in American History. We are now in the midst of yet another banking and financial crisis and once again, Sen. John McCain's fingerprints are all over the scene of the crime. I refer to the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s which lead to the failure of 747 savings and loan associations. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.

However, $2.8 billion of that government bailout lay squarely at the feet of Sen. John McCain and his misuse of the power by pressuring banking regulators to lay off of his personal friend and Lincoln Savings & Loan Chairman, Charles Keating. It seems that unethical activity and the betrayal of public trust has become a common trait in the republican campaing now that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has brougth her own cloud of suspicion with her to the ticket. How proud the republican party must be to have not one, but two candidates whom are and have been the subjects of investigations into ethics violations and misuse of power. And how insulting it is to the American people that these candidates continue to spout one false claim after another even when such claims have been debunked by even the most conservative media outlets. I think it is appropriate to bring Sen. McCain's involvement with the "Keating 5" to the forefront of this election since he has chosen to paint himself as a reformer. How obsurd it is for Senator McCain to portray his sudden fondness for government oversight in lieu of diregulation as anything other than a political ploy to earn votes. It would be cheeky of me to say that this would be like putting lipstick on a pig, so I won't. Besides, this goes well beyond a floksy anicdote. What McCain is trying to do is the sacreligious equivalent of putting rosery beads on a whore. Senator John "Keating 5" McCain has sank to an all-time low.

"Watch - The Keating 5 Video"

I find it absolutely amazing that John McCain has the balls to suddenly pretend to be some sort of caped-crusaider who has arrived just in the nick-of-time to save us from the greed and corruption in Washington. How does he plan to do that when his own running mate herself has been under a cloud of suspicion for years. Now she has instructed her staff and her husband to ignore legislative subpoenas and advised them not to cooperate with investigators in an on-going investigation. This is an oddly familiar tactic that has been used by the current administration, but particularly Dick Cheney. As the video above points out, a McCain-Palin admistration would not only be four more years of the same old Bush-Cheney policy, but four more years of the Bush-Cheney policy on steroids.

Chico Brisbane CB/js

Source: Orange County Public Records, Wikipedia, Youtube