The Chicago Sun Times published an article today called "McCain's own Tony Rezko" detailing and comparing both John McCain's association with Charles Keating and Barack Obama's with Tony Rezko. I am glad to see that the Keating Five scandal finally got some coverage during the election. This is a story we should be pushing hard. This is yet another example of McCain getting a free pass from the MSM. A scandal of this magnitude failing to get coverage in a presidential election is preposterous. With that in mind, I'm not sure how I feel about this particular article.
It still has some good quotes though,
Republican candidate John McCain admitted he made a "serious error" in not reporting free trips to the Bahamas he took on friend and donor Charles Keating's private jet. McCain was one of the "Keating Five" senators who met with federal regulators to ask them not to crack down on Keating's failing Lincoln Savings and Loan.
A serious error indeed. Follow me below the jump for an analysis of the article as well as for thoughts on the scandals role in this campaign.
Although the comparison the article makes favors Barack Obama, it equates two things that aren't even the same ballpark. Barack Obama made a mistake when he bought property from a contributor. McCain attended a meeting with five other Senators to pressure a regulatory agency to forgo its responsibility to the people of the United States on the behalf of Charles Keating. The man that McCain would skirt the edges of criminality for ended up costing the American taxpayers 3.4 billion dollars. By comparison Tony Rezko hurt some individuals he dealt with and went to jail.
McCain attended two meetings with the Senators on behalf of Keating. In the first meeting he made no objection as Senator Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ)read a scripted request from Keating to drop the investigation of Lincoln Savings and Loan to Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank.
At the second meeting with three other regulators McCain said,
"One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion . . . ACC [Lincoln's parent company] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them. . . . I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper."
Often when one says they don't want to have a conversation that is improper they are about to have one. Also, notice McCain's description of Keating as just another constituent. You know just your run of the mill Arizonan who donated over 100,000 thousand dollars to him over the years and lent him his private jet for vacations to the Bahamas on nine separate occasions. Keating is such a swell guy he didn't even ask to be paid back for the vacation expenses.
William Black, former deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp who was at the meeting described McCain this way
"McCain was clearly extremely nervous and distressed at the meeting. We thought, 'If he's this nervous, then we ought to be petrified.' I think he really was conflicted. He really did know that Keating wanted him to do something very wrong."
Did he? Then why show up at the meeting at all? And if he was so nervous about impropriety during the two separate meetings why didn't he object to a single thing that occurred in either one?
I firmly believe that if a scandal of this magnitude was in the past of Barack Obama he would never have even had the chance to run for President, let alone secure his parties nomination. In light of the recent bank failures and sub prime mortgage crisis, it is important to point out to the electorate that in the case of banking and loan structures vs the American people, we know which side John McCain is on. Maybe Barack Obama shouldn't be the one pushing the issue on this one, but the netroots certainly can. And we should.
For anyone looking for information on the scandal, the Arizona republic has an excellent article on it from a series they did on McCain in 1999. You can read it here.
Thanks for reading, as always.
Update: A comment by Kristina40 reminds me that I neglected to mention the relationship between Cindy McCain and Keating as well. "On Oct. 8, 1989, The [Arizona] Republic revealed that McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators." That comes from the article I already linked. Thanks Kristina40.