Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Keating Five

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John McCain’s message of the day is regarding Barack Obama’s “poor judgment” regarding his relationship with Freddie Mac’s CEO.

Back in the day, John McCain got off easy for his close relationship with Charles Keating, when he was only reprimanded by the Senate for his “poor judgment” in the relationship, involving political influence over a failing Savings and Loan.

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  1. John McCain was not reprimanded.

    <

    p>He was cleared of all wrongdoing by the Senate Ethics Committee, and was merely criticized for meeting with federal regulators on Keating’s behalf.

    <

    p>John McCain was, in fact, the only one of the five who did not receive a rebuke.

    • than Bill Clinton’s relationship with Jim McDougal.

      <

      p>Not that either deserve an impeachment hearing because of the relationship, but I find McCain’s ‘reformer’ mantle a bit stretched, and his criticism of Obama having a relationship with an officer of Freddie Mac, with insinuation that somehow Obama was responsible for the shenanigans in the mortgage market by many parties …

      <

      p>Well, I found it curious that the senate use exactly the same description (poor judgment) as McCain used, without an evidence other than association, to critique Obama today.

      • What are we doing, taking a trip ’round jakes barn here?
        You’re all over the map.

        <

        p>Look, McCain hasn’t made any allegations of impropriety here.

        <

        p>He has however, very rightly pointed out that Obama has close ties to those whose incompetence, to say the least, contributed the very problem that Obama now claims himself to be best suited to solve.

    • After three months lurking, northeaster099whatever has chosen me, yeah! ME!, for his very first drive-by down-rate.

      <

      p>Golly, gosh, gee wilikers!
      I’m sooo flattered!

    • You erroneously state that “John McCain was, in fact, the only one of the five who did not receive a rebuke.”  In fact, the only Senator actually “rebuked” (via a formal reprimand) was Alan Cranston; the other four, like McCain, were only “criticized” in various ways by the Ethics Committee.  And of the five, the least criticized was John Glenn:

      <

      p>

      The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of Glenn in the scheme was minimal, and the charges against him were dropped. He was only criticized by the Committee for “poor judgment.”

      <

      p>So you’re right that McCain was not formally reprimanded.  However, it remains true that his personal relationship with Keating was far closer than that of any of the others, and his personal financial entanglements with Keating were more extensive than the others.

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      p>

      McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981,[10] and McCain was the closest socially to Keating of the five senators.[21] Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.[18] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[22] In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.[6][23]

      <

      p>I also found it amusing that one investigation concluded that McCain had leaked sensitive information to the press in the course of the investigation in order to damage other Senators.  Nice.

      • There was only one formal reprimand, two severe criticisms, and two (McCain, Glenn) were completely exonerated and both received only
        minor criticism.

        <

        p>From your link:

        Among the Keating Five, McCain took the most direct contributions from Keating. But the investigation found that he was the least culpable

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