McCain attorney John Dowd attempts to set the record straight on McCain and the Keating Five scandal in a media call.
Says McCain was "completely open with both the public and the Senate" during the hearings. Emphasized he was not found to have violated any rule of the Senate or law of the U.S.
Thinks that the committee when too far in suggesting that McCain’s intervention with regulators was poor judgment.
I've made a habit in the past of months of casually bringing it up to people (who are old enough to remember). These are usually people I talk with at work or other places. People who mostly don't follow any of this stuff closely.
They all definitely remember the Keating 5 and that it was bad, but nobody I have asked knows that McCain was one of them. It's amazing how under-the-radar this has stayed.
Do you remember the Keating 5?
Yeah.
You know McCain was one of the five, right?
Really?
Some ask: "You mean he was involved in it somehow, or he was actually one of the five?" For effect, I hold up my hand and count out on my 5 fingers: "1, 2, 3, 4, John McCain. The Keating 5."
Wow.
Well, we know Obama gave the green light to his surrogates to use K5 references. There is no way this won't hurt. This will keep the discussion about Main Street vs. Wall Street where it needs to be.
The Barack Obama campaign has unveiled a new website, KeatingEconomics.com, including a new 13-minute documentary video on John McCain's role in the Keating savings & loan scandal of the 1980s and its links to the current financial crisis.
From Politico:
Engaging on Keating
I'd always thought McCain's great strength in defending the Keating affair was that he'd acknowledged making a huge mistake, and spent his career repenting by recasting himself as a reformer.
So when his campaign puts his lawyer on the line with reporters to contest the details of a congressional inquiry that, largely, let McCain off the hook, doesn't that cloud the sin-confession-atonement dynamic a bit?
More from Halperin:
Thinks that the committee went too far in suggesting that McCain’s intervention with regulators was poor judgment.
McCain aide Brian Rogers tries to move conversation back to Ayers, accuses Obama of not acting honorably in describing his relationship with him.
"Says McCain was 'completely open with both the public and the Senate' during the hearings. Emphasized he was not found to have violated any rule of the Senate or law of the U.S." He was completely open and he was found to not have broken any laws. Nice. Any day when a politician has to have his attorney come out and say that is a bad day. A very bad day.