It's Time to Talk About John McCain, the "Keating 5," and the "making of a financial crisis"

By: Lowell
Published On: 10/6/2008 5:33:43 AM

It's about time that we talked about this issue, as the 1980s Keating scandal is "eerily similar to today's credit crisis."  See the full-length video at http://KeatingEconomics.com starting at noon today. It's called "KEATING ECONOMICS: The story of John McCain and the making of a financial crisis.  According to Wikipedia:

This ad shows images from 1991 of Senator McCain testifying before the Senate Ethics Committee investigation of corruption allegations regarding the Keating Five interspersed with images of the 2008 financial crisis. In the promo, William Black, former deputy director of the FSLIC states that Senator McCain "has not learned the lessons [from the Keating Five scandal] and has continued to follow policies that are going to produce a disaster."

So...John McCain wants to head to the gutter with his vicious attacks against Barack Obama on William Ayers (memo to McCain message-meisters: Obama was 8 years old when that s*** went down), etc? Well, how about a dose of reality, Senator, as in your involvement in the Savings and Loan crisis/scandal of the late 1980s/early 1990s, especially considering that this is actually relevant to what's happening in America's economy today?

Comments



Matt Stoller (Lowell - 10/6/2008 6:01:17 AM)
nails it:

Obviously reporters are going to be sorely tempted to equate Charles Keating with William Ayers and rail about how the campaigns are both descending into the muck.  The difference is that Charles Keating had a financial relationship with John McCain for which McCain did political favors during a financial crisis that was structurally identical to the one the next President will have to solve, while William Ayers was a guy living in Obama's neighborhood who committed terrorist acts when Obama was eight.

Other than that, they are the same.  Politics is dirty!



One description from the Washington Monthly . . . (JPTERP - 10/6/2008 8:26:49 AM)
that I thought could be used to parry these kind of comparisons:

"If McCain raises Rezko personally in the Tuesday debate, Obama must turn to him, face him, and say something like this personally. Everyone knows that Obama hates to do this, but, really, this is a test of strength. "With all due respect, John, there is only one candidate here tonight who has been found guilty of public misconduct -- and that is you in the Keating Five scandal. You pressured federal regulators to let your banker friend and political supporter run amok -- and it ended up costing the taxpayers billions to fix the mess you and other DC insiders helped to create. I have never engaged in personal or public wrongdoing of any kind, and you know it.""



Delivery is everything (AnonymousIsAWoman - 10/6/2008 9:27:22 AM)
You are absolutely right.  And as I said in the above title, it's all in the delivery.  If Obama stands up there and says those words in the calm, measured manner for which he is rightly famous, it will pack a devastating punch. Quiet dignity while defending oneself with powerful words trumps erratic behavior and sarcasm every time.