McCain and Keating Economics

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-09-2008
McCain and Keating Economics
19
Mon, 10-06-2008 - 1:56pm

It would do well for everyone to remember that this scandal did not happen too long ago.  Watch and learn.


http://www.keatingeconomics.com/?source=sem-pm-google&gclid=CKTO8reVk5YCFQRfagodgWLRFA


The current economic crisis demands that we understand John McCain's attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation. Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late '80s and early '90s.


John McCain was accused of improperly aiding his political patron, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. The bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee launched investigations and formally reprimanded Senator McCain for his role in the scandal -- the first such Senator to receive a major party nomination for president.


At the heart of the scandal was Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which took advantage of deregulation in the 1980s to make risky investments with its depositors' money. McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating with federal regulators tasked with preventing banking fraud, and championed legislation to delay regulation of the savings and loan industry -- actions that allowed Keating to continue his fraud at an incredible cost to taxpayers.


When the savings and loan industry collapsed, Keating's failed company put taxpayers on the hook for $3.4 billion and more than 20,000 Americans lost their savings. John McCain was reprimanded by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee, but the ultimate cost of the crisis to American taxpayers reached more than $120 billion.


The Keating scandal is eerily similar to today's credit crisis, where a lack of regulation and cozy relationships between the financial industry and Congress has allowed banks to make risky loans and profit by bending the rules. And in both cases, John McCain's judgment and values have placed him on the wrong side of history.




Edited 10/6/2008 1:57 pm ET by sistah_w

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2003
Tue, 10-07-2008 - 3:18pm

McCain was an adult when he accepted those trips from Keating, which he did not disclose...senators are required to disclose ALL trips and/or gifts they receive. I wonder what else he hasn't disclosed. McCain was in deep trouble for his actions revolving around Keating. He was trying to obstruct an investigation, that he must have known would get Keating and himself in trouble. There is no other reason for him to try to obstruct the investigation. Ok, the other four were democrats...what's your point? What should I admit? They both know crooks? One happened forty years ago, the other twenty years ago. To not admit what McCain did while a congressman, was more than "poor judgement" amazes me.


McCain's involvement in the Keating 5 scandal was fully investigated by the special counsel appointed by the ethics committee.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-25-2008
Tue, 10-07-2008 - 3:21pm
I also haven't seen anything to suggest even the most cursory "friendship" between Liddy and McCain.


You haven't? Try this:

Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."


Then again, what you said above - ("haven't seen anything to suggest even the most cursory "friendship" between....") is exactly how most people who've reviewed the whole Ayers/Obama issues feel about that. They sat on a non-profit charity board a few years ago, for a brief time, a board which met once a quarter to discuss the charity. Not bombing the White House or slammin' the man.

I also haven't seen anything that demonstrates he is unrepentant....


(from the same source, above): "He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as 'a prisoner of war'."

....he has not continued to commit crimes....


Neither has Ayers.

...he does not espouse a radical anti-American ideology.


Really? This Liddy gem of a quote sure sounds like he's advocating the shooting in the head of AFT agents:

Now, if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. ... Kill the sons of bitches.


Sounds both more personal and more violently anti-American than anything I've heard Ayers quoted as saying.

Liddy was a criminal, not a terrorist....


Hmmm....sorta depends on how you look at it, doesn't it? I'd sure say that advocating shooting BATF agents in the head would qualify as "terrorist"-type behavior. Wonder what snoopyme - wife of a cop - thinks of ol' Gordo's statement there?

Actually, I don't really wonder all that much; there's probably a way to excuse or a way to overlook such a shockingly direct advocacy of violence against American law-enforcement troops. As Digby beautifully captured it:

The right is proud of its miscreants and felons and ascribes their motives to Goldwater's dictum, "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."

Celebrated right wing pundit Ann Coulter even went so far as to say:

My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.


The Republicans and the mainstream media (masochistically) call that a joke. But I have a sneaking suspicion if anyone tried to joke about William Ayers, we'd have a hissy fit the size of Hurricane Katrina on our hands.

The fact is that what many people would call violent, eliminationist rhetoric is common among the right wing, but has become so mainstream that the country doesn't even see it anymore. Instead, it's being projected onto the ghosts of a small handful of leftist radicals who in reality are now placid, aging academics musing about their former glories before an audience of 13 English majors.


Bingo.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2003
Tue, 10-07-2008 - 3:42pm
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-22-2008
Tue, 10-07-2008 - 7:27pm

I also haven't seen anything to suggest even the most cursory "friendship" between Liddy and McCain.

>>> You haven't? Try this: Last November…keep our nation great."

Sorry, no…still haven’t seen anything to suggest anything more than the most cursory “friendship” between Liddy and McCain.

>>> Then again, what you said above - ("haven't seen anything to suggest even the most cursory "friendship" between....") is exactly how most people who've reviewed the whole Ayers/Obama issues feel about that. They sat on a non-profit charity board a few years ago, for a brief time, a board which met once a quarter to discuss the charity. Not bombing the White House or slammin' the man.

I’m afraid you’re mistaken again…

(2002 conference) Dohrn spoke and Ayres and Obama spoke on the same panel–”Intellectuals in Times of Crisis”.

Obama, Ayres and Dohrn all gave testimonials at a farewell dinner for Rashid Khalidi in 2005
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/obama_had_a_pattern_of_contacts_with_weathermen_terrorists/

In 1995, During Obama's First State Senate Campaign, William Ayers And Wife Bernadine Dohrn Hosted A Meeting Of Chicago Liberals At Their Home For Obama, Which One Attendee Said Was Aimed At "Launching Him." "In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district's influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local activists, they're better known nationally as two of the most notorious -- and unrepentant -- figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement. ... 'I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers' house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress,' said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the info rmal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Dohrn. ' identified as her successor.' ... Dr. Young and another guest, Maria Warren, described it similarly: as an introduction to Hyde Park liberals of the handpicked successor to Palmer, a well-regarded figure on the left. 'When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,' Warren wrote on her blog in 2005. 'They were launching him -- introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.'" (Ben Smith, "Obama Once Visited '60s Radicals," The Politico, 1/22/08)

From March Of 1995 Until September Of 1997, Obama And Ayers Attended At Least Seven Meetings Together Relating To The Chicago Annenberg Challenge. (Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Board Of Directors Meeting, Minutes Of The Board, 3/15/95, 3/31/95, 4/13/95, 6/5/95, 9/30/97; National Annenberg Challenge Evaluation Meeting, List Of Participants, 5/24/95; Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Chicago School Reform Collaborative Meeting, Minutes, 10/23/96)

* NOTE: Bill Ayers Was Asked To Help Obama Formulate The Chicago Annenberg Challenge By-Laws. (Chicago Annenberg Challenge Board Of Directors Minutes, 3/15/95)

In 1997, Obama Praised Ayers' Book On The Juvenile Justice System. "The two men were involved in efforts to reform the city's education system. They appeared together on academic panels, including one organized by Michelle Obama to discuss the juvenile justice system, an area of mutual concern. Mr. Ayers's book on the subject won a rave review in The Chicago Tribune by Mr. Obama, who called it 'a searing and timely account.'" (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, "Pragmatic Politics, Forged On The South Side," The New York Times, 5/11/08)

* Obama On William Ayers' "A Kind And Just Parent: The Children Of Juvenile Court": "A searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair." (Chicago Tribune, 12/21/97)

" Have Also Appeared Jointly On Two Academic Panels, One In 1997 And Another In 2001." (Russell Berman, "Obama's Ties To Left Come Under Scrutiny," The New York Sun, 2/19/08)

From 1999 To 2002, Obama Served With Ayers On The Board Of Directors For Woods Fund Of Chicago. " served with from 1999 to 2002 on the board of the Woods Fund, an anti-poverty group." (Timothy J. Burger, "Obama's Chicago Ties Might Fuel 'Republican Attack Machine'," Bloomberg, 2/15/08)

* During The Time Obama And Ayers Served Together On The Woods Fund, Ayers Was Quoted Saying "I Don't Regret Setting Bombs ... I Feel We Didn't Do Enough." "'I don't regret setting bombs,' Bill Ayers said. 'I feel we didn't do enough.' Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970's as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago." (Dinitia Smith, "No Regrets For A Love Of Explosives," The New York Times, 9/11/01)

* NOTE: Obama, Born August 14th, 1961, Was 40 Years Old When Ayers Was Quoted. (Obama For America Website, www.barackobama.com, Accessed 10/6/08; Dinitia Smith, "No Regrets For A Love Of Explosives," The New York Times, 9/11/01)

* While Obama And Ayers Were Serving On The Woods Fund Together, Ayers Posed Standing On An American Flag For An Article In Chicago Magazine Entitled "No Regrets." (Marcia Froelke Coburn, "No Regrets," Chicago Magazine, 8/01)
http://thinkingamerican.blogtownhall.com/2008/10/06/the_obama_ayres_relationship.thtml

<...he does not espouse a radical anti-American ideology.

>>> Really? This Liddy gem of a quote…Kill the sons of bitches. Sounds both more personal and more violently anti-American than anything I've heard Ayers quoted as saying.

A misquote taken out of context.

< Liddy was a criminal, not a terrorist....

>>> Hmmm....sorta depends on how you look at it, doesn't it? I'd sure say that advocating shooting BATF agents in the head would qualify as "terrorist"-type behavior. Wonder what snoopyme - wife of a cop - thinks of ol' Gordo's statement there?

No, not really. Liddy was guilty of burglary and Ayres planted bombs. Not even remotely similar.

Sorry, but you’re wrong, wrong, wrong again. Try harder next time.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-08-2003
Wed, 10-08-2008 - 3:04am

Thank God Ayers missed and no one was killed in his bombings.

 Rose

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-08-2003
Wed, 10-08-2008 - 3:18am
LOL, what ARE your sources?!

 Rose

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-08-2003
Wed, 10-08-2008 - 3:24am
Nonsense!!!

 Rose

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 10-08-2008 - 4:32am

((Honestly...If Obama were to apply for a federal position i.e. FBI, DEA, ATF, Secret Service...his connection with Ayers would be a deal breaker. ))

No, Obama would not, because Obama's record is clean. He is very active in his community-always meeting people- and so it is inevitable that some of these people will have "pasts". He works for a university that employs a man that was CLEARED of ALL charges. In America, that means NOT GUILTY. Some people don't respect that verdict. Maybe because this system is not perfect (check out Birmingham circa 1960's), but picking and choosing which cases are "legitimate" or not is not the public's job.

How about McCain's senate hearings on the Keating Five, which should have been criminal trials? He and John Glenn were CLEARED of their charges, right? Do you not think that "verdict" should be upheld? I don't. McCain's hands were dirty and he should have gone to jail. He cost the American Taxpayer BILLIONS of dollars and didn't have to go to jail or pay it back. Three of his fellow senators took the fall. I bet their families are well off. Yeah.

McCain sang a song about BOMBING Iran...do you believe him when he says he was joking? I don't. Because McCain has lied in the past and has proven that he is willing to lie to win this election as well. That makes him desperate.

So, Obama has NEVER been involved with abuse of power or corruption, the way Palin is now and McCain was twice (that we know of). Guilt by association goes both ways. Those two will have some questions for them in the morning for sure. They should not get away with lying about Obama and making his social activity in his community and serving on boards of a respectable university and the city something sinister, just because an exonerated man serves on them, too.

McCain knows it, that's why he was too ashamed to say it to Obama's face tonight. Maybe he has a small morsel of dignity left somewhere deep under that contempt, anger, and desperation.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 10-08-2008 - 6:14am

((Why does John McCain hate America? Why does he hang around with these anti-American, low-life criminal types?))

He never shook the Manchurian Label...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

John McCain

(((McCain ran ads accusing Bush of lying and comparing the governor to Bill Clinton, which Bush said was "about as low a blow as you can give in a Republican primary". An anonymous smear campaign began against McCain, delivered by push polls, faxes, e-mails, flyers, and audience plants. The smears claimed that McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock (the McCains' dark-skinned daughter was adopted from Bangladesh), that his wife Cindy was a drug addict, that he was a homosexual, and that he was a "Manchurian Candidate" who was either a traitor or mentally unstable from his North Vietnam POW days. The Bush campaign strongly denied any involvement with the attacks.

McCain lost South Carolina on February 19, with 42 percent of the vote to Bush's 53 percent, in part because Bush mobilized the state's evangelical voters and outspent McCain. The win allowed Bush to regain lost momentum. McCain would say of the rumor spreaders, "I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those." According to one report, the South Carolina experience left McCain in a "very dark place".[130)))

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2003
Wed, 10-08-2008 - 7:31pm

I have read post after post where conservatives have said that they do not believe that Obama is a terrorist.

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