McCain, Step Away from the Mike...

[Fish2006]

McCain, please step away from the mike. This worked so well last time you screwed this up. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

[homedawg]

The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was minimal, and he was cleared of all charges against him. McCain was criticized by the Committee for exercising "poor judgment" when he met with the federal regulators on Keating's behalf. The report also said that McCain's "actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him....Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate." On his Keating Five experience, McCain has 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 would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings was "the worst mistake of my life".

[homedawg]

If Barack Obama is so outraged at John McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five scandal, why is John Glenn, another Keating Five member, doing surrogate work for Obama?

Obama’s presidential campaign released a scathing documentary on Monday detailing McCain’s ties to the Savings and Loan crisis on the 1980’s. Five U.S. senators were named in the scandal: Sen. Alan Cranston (D.-Calif.), Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D.-Ariz.), Sen. John Glenn (D.-Ohio), Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and Sen. Donald Reigle (D-Minn.).

"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," reads a trailer for the video on a website created by the Obama campaign to attack McCain, Keating Economics. "And in both cases, John McCain's judgment and values have placed him on the wrong side of history.

But Obama doesn’t seem to have any quarrel with Glenn. The former Democratic Ohio senator introduced Bruce Springsteen at a benefit concert for Obama in Ohio on Sunday, October 5. He's also done other surrogate work for Obama as well. According to Obama's presidential website Glenn held a conference calls with reporters for Obama in August.

A day after Glenn urged people to register to vote for Obama in Ohio, Obama’s campaign began a multimedia campaign to remind the public McCain was one of the “Keating Five” although he was eventually cleared of all charges.

Like McCain, Glenn was also found not guilty of violating any Senate rules.

Keating Five

Attorney John Dowd, who represented McCain during the Senate Ethics investigation, said Senate Democrats conducted a "classic political smear job" on McCain in the Keating Five scandal.

"When it was discovered Keating was pushing too hard, he [McCain] threw Keating out of his office and ended all relations with him," Dowd said.

[homedawg]

“Keating Five” vs the “Obama Ten”

October 7, 2008

YouTuber protocol66, who put together an excellent piece comparing the “Keating Five” to the “Obama Ten”, writes:

Liberals think that “Keating Five” is a worthy complaint about McCain. Yet most of those that spew the term don’t even know who they are. Once you learn that four of the five were Democrats, and two of the five (John Glenn and John McCain) were exhonerated and cleared of any wrongdoing you will wonder what the fuss is about. Then, when you look at Obama’s relationships you wonder who would even think of saying “Keating Five.” Therefore I give you the OBAMA TEN.