Set aside the fact that these letters were written on behalf of John McCain’s political patron and major campaign contributor Charles Keating. Just let them speak for themselves, and consider what they say about whether he really believes what he’s saying these days about the need for more stringent oversight.
Letter to the president’s chief of staff (identical letter sent to the Secretary of the Treasury) urging a delay in implementing a new regulation limiting Savings & Loans from making certain risky investments:
I support Congressman Annunzio in his effort to delay the promulgation of this regulation. I believe it to be unwise, and I think it flys [sic] in the face of our recent efforts to remove the hand of government from the affairs of private enterprise.
Huh, interesting. Here’s another one, sent a few months earlier (jointly with four other congressmen, but on McCain’s letterhead) to the head of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board:
In our view, the major problems faced today by thrift institutions continue to be the result of past regulation, not as a result of recent deregulation efforts.
There are only two possibilities with respect to these letters. (1) That’s what McCain really believed; or (2) he didn’t believe what he was writing, but was instead going against his beliefs for a political patron.
Neither is acceptable. The first means he’s an adherent of the philosophy that put us into the mess in which we now find ourselves. The second means he’s a political whore. Take your pick — either way, McCain loses.
Depending on perspective, deregulation looks pretty good. Since 1984 you say?
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I have noted that people who claim that the present situation is a direct result of Republican-led deregulation of financial markets to have almost precisely the same credibility as those people who claim that the present situation is a direct result of the Community Reinvestment Act and the activism of ACORN.
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p>Which is to say, no credibility at all.
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p>Leave it to politicians and political activists to find in a crisis an opportunity to spew glib hogwash designed to reinforce that which they already believe.