"Creative Financing", otherwise known as gross malfeasance, is the open, runny chancer sore on the face of the Republican party. Creative financing has put millions in the pockets of the attorneyed classes, robbed directly from the pension funds and taxes of the little people. It has fueled gross corruption, destroyed innocent lives, has sent our whole economy into a recession. It is also the last defense for John McCain in his attempts to back out of a bank loan which he took freely.
Here's his latest defense:
The loan documents specifically state that the collateral did not include McCain's right to the public funds. But the agreement with Fidelity & Trust Bank of Bethesda, Md., required him to reapply for matching funds if he withdrew from public financing and lost early primary contests.
In other words, the Bank gave McCain a loan based on documents that attempt to re-define what "Collateral" means.
John McCain the reformer? How can a man who doesn't grasp the criminality of Enron be expected to attack this insidious rot at the heart of America's economic institutons?
Mr. McCain, it's like this: Rules are rules, at least for people like me. "Creative Financing" is another way of saying, "Fraud." The creative part comes in hiding your true intent and actions from the regulators who put in the rules. Just to remind you, the regulators are us, the people, who hired legislators a few decades ago who presumably knew what they were doing when setting up these rules.
It was collateral, even if the bank officer declared it wasn't. You took public financing and used it to get on the ballot for free in Ohio! Had you not done these things, you would not have recovered your campaign from certain defeat. You profited. Now pay up.
Your clever schemes to avoid the inconveniences of being held to your word are more of the same from Republicans: undignified squirming out of your clear obligations by use of bold but legally meaningless declarations and judiciously placed judges, elected officials and institutional officers. I thought you were a "reformer," but it appears that you're not going to be reforming the adherence to law by your party or its donors.
McCain: "Enron 'Not A Problem!'"
Keating and Abramoff both used creative accounting schemes to evade regulations that were designed to protect the American People. Had you been doing your job in the first place, had you been a real reformer, you would have seen the crimes occurring right under your nose and done something, instead of waiting for Democrats or the media to bust you.
Enron and WorldCom thought that breaking the rules would be okay if they gave every regulator and financial officer a plausible deniability cover, and as long as they were making money. But that money they robbed, and criminals profited and it's all due to a complete lack of enforcement of laws against "Creative Financing."
And now, senator, you want to squirm out of your obligations by use of some vile lobbyist-lawyer's clever mis-reading of the law? Or is it because the enforcing body has been hamstrung by the Bush Administration, and so there's no quorum to act on your meritless defense? "Since there's no one to file the charge against me, I'll keep breaking the law and not living up to my promises." Is that your position, John McCain?
McCain's willingness to quickly retreat behind lawyers and evade his freely made obligations should be attacked from now until November. This case is the perfect symbol of blind, corrupt, incompetent politicians who are completely insensitive to the damages caused by his actions.
This is a meme diary, and the meme is: McCain's Excuses = Enron's Abuses. I hope that Senator Obama brings this up in debate.