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Posted by John Galt on September 3, 2008, 11:36 am
Doobie Keebler wrote:
> In September 1987 the investigation of Lincoln Savings and Loan
> Association was removed from the San Francisco auditor group of the
> Federal Home Loan Bank Board, following a meeting with five U.S.
> Senators which regulators felt were pressuring them to back off the
> investigation.
>
> After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined
> in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had
> substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its
> investigation of Lincoln Savings. Senators John Glenn and John McCain
> were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having
> exercised "poor judgment".
>
>
http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter7.html
> or
> http://tinyurl.com/McCain-Keating5
>
>
> When it comes to 'poor judgement', John McCain is something of an
> expert: even the arch conservative political commentator Mark Levine,
> writing in National Review, agrees that this is an issue that
> shouldn't just go away.
Do you really think the Democrats should bring up a scandal where four
of the perps were Democrats, and in which the GOP presidential candidate
disassociated himself from the group because he balked when Keating
asked him for a political favor?
The K5 simply reminds the electorate that the Democrats are quite
capable of acting in a corrupt way, and that McCain has a record of
rejecting influence peddling in politics, and can use the (Democratic)
Ethics Committee's own words to verify his own integrity.
The Dems don't use the K5 because, all told, it's risker for them than
it is for McCain.
JG
>
> <snip>
>
> Remember the Keating Five?
> ======================
> Mark Levine - NRO
> April 5, 2001 9:15 a.m.
>
> For too long, McCain has been given a free pass by the media, which
> promotes campaign-finance reform to silence other voices, and by his
> Republican colleagues, who are concerned about alienating McCain given
> the GOP's tenuous majority in the Senate.
>
> In John McCain's America, any politician who accepts a large
> contribution or gift from a donor, and then takes steps consistent
> with the donor's interests — even though there is no legal quid pro
> quo — is corrupt. Well, then, by his own standard, McCain is corrupt.
>
> McCain was one of the so-called "Keating Five" senators. He was
> investigated by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics in 1991
> regarding the acceptance of favors from Lincoln Savings & Loan
> Association (Lincoln) and its owner, Charles H. Keating, Jr. Simply
> put, the issue was whether McCain and the other senators used their
> official positions to attempt to pressure Federal Home Loan Bank Board
> officials to go easy on the troubled institution. Eventually Lincoln
> went bust, costing depositors and taxpayers millions.
>
> In its final report (November 20, 1991), here is what the Senate
> Select Committee on Ethics concluded about McCain's conduct:
>
> "Mr. Keating, his associates, and his friends contributed $56,000 for
> Senator McCain's two House races in 1982 and 1984, and $54,000 for his
> 1986 Senate race. Mr. Keating also provided his corporate plane and/or
> arranged for payment for the use of commercial or private aircraft on
> several occasions for travel by Senator McCain and his family, for
> which Senator McCain ultimately provided reimbursement when called
> upon to do so. Mr. Keating also allowed Senator McCain and his family
> to vacation with Mr. Keating and his family, at a home provided by Mr.
> Keating in the Bahamas, in each of the calendar years 1983 through
> 1986.
>
> "…[F]rom 1984 to 1987, Senator McCain took actions on Mr. Keating's
> behalf or at his request. The Committee finds that Senator McCain had
> a basis for each of these actions independent of the contributions and
> benefits he received from Mr. Keating, his associates and friends.
>
> "Based on the evidence available to it, the Committee has given
> consideration to Senator McCain's actions on behalf of Lincoln. The
> Committee concludes that, given the personal benefits and campaign
> contributions he had received from Mr. Keating, Senator McCain
> exercised poor judgment in intervening with the regulators without
> first inquiring as to the Bank Board's position in the case in a more
> routine manner. The Committee concludes that Senator McCain's actions
> were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach
> the level of requiring institutional action against him. The Committee
> finds that Senator McCain took no further action after the April 9,
> 1987 meeting when he learned of a criminal referral.
>
> "The Committee reaffirms its prior decision that it does not have
> jurisdiction to determine the issues of disclosure or reimbursement
> pertaining to flights provided by American Continental Corporation
> while Senator McCain was a Member of the House of Representatives. The
> Committee did consider the effect of such on his state of mind and
> judgment in taking steps to assist Lincoln.
>
> "Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific
> Rule of the United States Senate; therefore, the Committee concludes
> that no further action is warranted with respect to Senator McCain on
> the matters investigated during the preliminary inquiry."
>
> McCain was the only Republican implicated in the Keating Five scandal,
> yet today he lectures his party and his president about "the
> corrupting influence" of money in politics. He rails against the so-
> called "wealthy special interests" and their ability to buy access to
> elected officials, yet this is precisely what the Keating Five scandal
> was all about. And, of course, under McCain's current standard, a
> politician who takes a principled position that may benefit a donor is
> corrupt, even if no law has been violated.
>
> The John McCain of old should be thankful that his political fate
> wasn't determined by John McCain the reformer.
>
> . . .
> Mr. Levin is also president of the Landmark Legal Foundation.
>
>
> .end
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