Could there be any more appropriate time to talk about the Keating Five? While financial institutions are failing all around us because of lax oversight, can we please talk about John McCain’s involvement in seeking regulatory relief for a friend and political contributor, causing the loss of millions by stockholders, depositors, and taxpayers?
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown says, yes we can:
"It is not so much his economic proposals but his economic record," Brown said of McCain. "His main adviser is Phil Gramm — he was his mentor in the Senate — and you just tie it all together. Of course John McCain supported the oil industry, he has oil lobbyists working for him. Of course John McCain supported these trade agreements, he has got Wall Street people working for him… It is all wrapped up together. John McCain is a creature of these interest groups in Washington. He is no maverick and, from the Keating Five on, his ethics have been questionable. He’s not a maverick and Barack has got to just keep hammering on that."
Every single Democrat can now talk about the Keating Five. It’s out of its secret, mystery box where it lived with Vicki Iseman, his abandonment of his first family, and his reputation for crashing planes.
So let’s hear it, Democrats. When John McCain spells out his brand-new plans for financial regulation, let’s remind Americans what John McCain thought about financial regulation the last time the financial system teetered on the brink of catastrophic failure: he thought the regulators should leave his friend alone.
And that’s not change we can believe in; that’s more of the same failed policies. Or exceptions to the same failed policies if you’re John McCain’s friend.
[YouTube of CNN's "John McCain Revealed" segment courtesy of The Jed Report]
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Teddy!!!!!!
Sherrod!!!!!!
Great stuff Teddy.
Spread the word:
Digg this excellent post
YES! It’s high time we revisit the S&L debacle, and what the Maverick was doing. (Answer: flying off on vacations on Charlie Keating’s plane.)
Every single Democrat can now talk about the Keating Five.
oh goody.
It’s out of its secret, mystery box where it lived with Vicki Iseman, his abandonment of his first family….
coming soon to a fundie mega-church near you?
Keating Five!
Get with it, Democrats.
Ooh. Nicely done, Teddy.
Nancy Foot-in-whoore talking to Noron now on MSNBC.
hey – my teevee seems to be learning when to mute, all by itself!
Don’t think they are going to be able to put this nasty little Keating five back in the box.
Nice, Teddy. I’m so glad you are posting often.
I don’t know if it was previously off limits so much as lacked an appropriate context to trot it out. This weeks economic meltdown certainly fits that bill. Thank-you Sherrod.
Exactly! For years, it wasn’t relevant. Now, it’s front and center.
WHEEEEEE!!!!
Bring it.
But…but…Kkkarl said not to.
But I’m so glad you did!
I just hope there’s not a lot of hay made over the fact that the other four Senators involved were all Dems. That, I’m sure, will be their excuse for his actions.
Does this mean we can talk about Cindy Lou’s ex-con daddy and his business deals w/ Keating too?
please do.
Bringing this up from downstairs because it might be of interest…
As usual, Froomie’s spot on.
I’ve been in financial services over 24 years, and have never seen anything close to what’s going on now.
On page a6 of today’s WSJ a headline reads “Congress Vows Action on Markets, but After Election”
Sen Reid and co don’t get it. We need substantive action immediately.
The short sellers are running rampant and causing fear throughout the financial markets.
If they wait until after the elections, there won’t be financial markets to come back to, at least as we’ve known them.
That’s not snark, either. A couple more 500 point down days and you’ll begin to see real panic in the markets, because that will be when you’ll call the broker/administrator of your 401(k), IRA, 403(B) etc. and say “Sell everything!”
Which of course they must do, so it will cause even more selling, and therefore lower market levels.
I don’t think it is necessary to go into detail about the Keating fiasco but it helps drive home the point that from the get-go, McCain has been up to his eyeballs in the deregulation policies that made the current crisis possible.
somebody should tell Nancy Pfoney and Cindybot to scale back on the gold in these tumultuous times.
About time Sherrod Brown came out of his self-imposed box and proclaimed his progressive principles. Like Obama, he is too reluctant to broadcast them, too hesitant to make them priorities in Congress. Thankfully, he helped the Senate shed the execrable Mike DeWine. (Someone else will have to rid the Senate of the nearly-as-bad George Voinovich, willing to cry on the Senate floor, but not willing to vote against George Bush or his banking, insurance, and health industry supporters, no matter how many Ohioans are out of work.)
Brown has hit upon a valid, too little addressed theme. McSame is no maverick; he’s whatever will get him what he wants. Mostly that’s being a lying bully who doesn’t think too much or too well, which suits the neocons run today’s Republican Party. McCain needs to be kept as far away from the levers of power as possible. Thank you, Sen. Brown, for coming to the party.
bushie reminded me of a little groundhog. two more years of winter.
No accessorizing after the fact?
Is this kinda like McShame Knowing how to catch OBL and how to fix the financial markets?
Thank you!
lol. they wear more gold than Liberace did in the 70s!
Any of ‘em runnin for Pres?
Oh yeah that’s right, NO! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.
Keating Five!
When does this McCain Revealed thingy play on CNN? Is it the new reality show? seriously, I’d like to see the whole thing.
And we don’t have 2 weeks, let alone 2 years to get a handle on this mess.
somebody should tell Nancy Pfoney and Cindybot to scale back on the gold in these tumultuous times.
Ms. Nancy does have that Rothschild air about her, huh?
Snicker.
McCain knows, but he’s not telling unless we elect him Preznit.
Fail to elect him and suffer the consequences, fools.
What an honorable patriot.
Teddy, thank you.
I can’t believe “KEATING FIVE” hasn’t been every other word out of every Democrat’s mouth.
Too late. Already done.
well, Bob Bennett cleared him, they said so.
OT There is a lot of hate shit on talk radio
http://mediamatters.org/items/200809180003?f=h_top
It’s country first don’t ya know
McCain and Phil Gramm should be kept as far away as possible from ‘running’ anything more involved than a vacuum cleaner, let alone our national economy.
Someone should look into the shadows around McCain (where Phil still lurks, waiting to become Treasury Sec.) and ask him “Are we still just a nation of whiners now?”
And all of them are out of office…and left a long time ago. Several quit after the scandal touched them.
McCain was the ONLY one to escape the taint…and of them all, he was the only one to actually tell prosecutors to back off on their investiation of Keating. And the only one to have personal family financial assets linked to Keating.
OT : Alitalia going under – guess the pope won’t be visiting again soon
Halifax Bank going under too (20% mortgages in UK)
It ran last weekend, and I think also the weekend before the GOP St Paul convention. Not sure if they will run it again, at least not without a Caribou Barbie update, since that Reveals so much about his judgment, opportunism, temperament, and recklessness.
Keating 5 cost me $10,000 in equity in my home in Az. With a 3-2-1 buydown financing that ended up at 13% interest it left me with a 10 year lock on my credit rating as I went through a divorce.
The Real Mc Cain indeed.
mccain’s story is that it was bad judgment by a new kid and he was just slapped on the wrist anyway. and besides, that’s how he learnt how easily these shits gain influence and that’s exactly what made him the mavrick he is. makes sense no?
Tin foil hat worst case speculation dislaimer for what follows:
SEC changed the rules on short selling late last year. (”uptick” rule–don’t ask, long story)
Cui bono? Hedge funds and other institutions that are sophisticated enough to participate in, and manipulate, the markets to profit from being on the selling side of a declining market.
Was this the BushCo last hurrah: A massive gift to short sellers at the expense of all the 401k holders and pension funds?
His second wife, Cindy, and her crooked father were in business with Charles Keating. Since we know so little about her income now, it kind of raises the question: Is she still?
And I haven’t even started on the Husband Accessory, Mr Mortgage Broker Co dude.
IF smarmy, phony and stuck-up were sexy…
She might be as appealing as she thinks she is.
Guess I’ll have to go check whether any of them were convicted of anything more than minor ethics infringements. Iow, a slap on their hands. Certainly McC was not.
it’s really very favorable frrom the part i saw. so was the one on Obama, i thought. i was expecting them to be harder hitting — on both guys.
I wiki’d the K5 and discovered that Glenn was running for prez and got the same wet noodle McCain did. Cranston was the one most severely reprimanded. But McCain had the most personal and extensive relationship with Keating I notice. And two senators gave K donation money back.
wiki says he was. it must be true. only an honorable person would have put that info there.
Hey, your deference is showing. :]
thanks.
bbl, pups.
from Obama’s Money Cartel
By PAM MARTENS
http://www.counterpunch.org/martens05052008.html
The first thing I did when I encountered writing like this was cover my eyes and go “nee nee nee nee its so not true! Go Change!”
then I did some research and saw that Counterpunch does not always Support Democrats No Matter What, so I said “tinfoil hat! thanks-Ralph!” and that worked for awhile.
but unfortunately Pam Martens numbers come from the respected Center for Responsive Politics – for example for a current total of Bundlers:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pre…..=N00009638
So now I know that when Wall Street buys influence at the Obama shop, its buying influence only for good, populist, little old Middle America, not for itself … thanks Titans of Finance! Hope things work out for you, feel free to call the Obama-Biden administration if you need any favors in return.
and here is another scary link: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.php
OMG there’s five candidates on there, when there should be only two, one of whom is pure eeevil, as all the uncompensated oppo work at FDL amply demonstrates.
off topic
My point entirely.
If things don’t get stabilized soon, wave after wave of selling is gonna happen.
Don’t have the details yet, but just heard on CNBC that London has stopped allowing short selling in financial stocks until Jan. 2009.
Good for them.
A guest during the same segment called the hedge funds “predators” who don’t care about driving the financials to zero, because they know the govt. will have to come in and bail them out.
Exactly correct.
There needs to be a new term. “Maverick Republican” has been totally discredited by McCain.
for you, like so many others, this is personal.
Hey forget the cover up of the Jack Abramoff scandal IIRC McCain is sitting on thousands of pages of testimony as is his prerogative when he was Chairman of the Committee. We should be asking WHEN is John going to release all that evidence on Jack and the Rethuglian cronies who benefited from his WORK???
Scott Horton has some info on just that!!
BTW here is today’s update on my 87 scandals list entry on the housing bubble.
IF smarmy, phony and stuck-up were sexy…
She might be as appealing as she thinks she is.
Ha! You nailed it.
Smells like a political Whore to me!! John has always done what ever it takes to get ahead even at the cost of his own family!!
Clearly the bad kind of maverick
Hadn’t thought of that, but wouldn’t begin to put anything past these sinister, criminal sob’s.
And, as to the uptick rule, why is Cox sitting on his hands on that one?
Doesn’t cost a dime, and is an effective braking system on short selling.
It’s almost like they enjoy having these weekend meetings ponying up hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out companies that have been shorted out of existence.
Versus, you know, oversight on the front end.
Jane has a new post up and ready at Silo for our enjoyment.
Yeah, no self-respecting Republican would be caught dead on NPR. Anyway, Gilchrest is retiring, so apparently he feels like he can speak his mind. Hope he doesn’t end up facing a military tribunal.
Um, GIlchrest was retired by a wingnut primary challenger.
Uptick
I’d like to welcome Alan Greenspan to the Keating five party:
In 1985, Keating hired Alan Greenspan as an economic consultant, in an unsuccessful effort to convince an oversight agency to exempt Lincoln Savings from certain regulations. Greenspan delivered a favorable report, writing that Lincoln Savings was “a financially strong institution that presents no foreseeable risk to depositors or the government.” (Greenspan produced similar favorable reports on numerous other banks that also failed soon after.) [3]
201991&st=nyt&scp=1&oref=slogin”>NYT
McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five
The story of “the Keating Five” has become a scandal rivaling Teapot Dome and Watergate McCain was a freshman congress critter out of the box corruption. This Phoenix paper gas the real story worth the read.
mentor in the Senate – that is a telling little tidbit when it comes to John McCain – but not when it comes to Barack Obama, whose Senate mentor is Joe Lieberman! – a guy he admires very much, even after his primary defeat and Independent run.
Teddy dig a little deeper and read this:
Keating bilked thousands of seniors out of their retirements. McCain worked for him and the McCains had a conflict of interest in investing in one of the shopping center developments.
Back in the old days, defendants in famous trials got numbers — the Chicago Eight, the Gang of Four, the Dave Clark Five, the Daytona 500. McCain was one of the “Keating Five,” congressmen investigated on ethics charges for strenuously helping convicted racketeer Charles Keating after he gave them large campaign contributions and vacation trips.
Charles Keating was convicted of racketeering and fraud in both state and federal court after his Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $3.4 billion. His convictions were overturned on technicalities; for example, the federal conviction was overturned because jurors had heard about his state conviction, and his state charges because Judge Lance Ito (yes, that judge) screwed up jury instructions. Neither court cleared him, and he faces new trials in both courts.)
Though he was not convicted of anything, McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating after Keating gave McCain at least $112,00 in contributions. In the mid-1980s, McCain made at least 9 trips on Keating’s airplanes, and 3 of those were to Keating’s luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain’s wife and father-in-law also were the largest investors (at $350,000) in a Keating shopping center; the Phoenix New Times called it a “sweetheart deal.”
Mafia ties:
In 1995, McCain sent birthday regards, and regrets for not attending, to Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonano, the head of the New York Bonano crime family, who had retired to Arizona. Another politician to send regrets was Governor Fife Symington, who has since been kicked out of office and convicted of 7 felonies relating to fraud and extortion.
Please call Rachel Maddow with this heat. Thanks BB
Blue Texan a couple of flights upstairs
Is John McCain a Crook?
Is John McCain a Crook?
http://www.slate.com/id/1004633/ link did not work
Is John McCain a Crook?
Is John McCain a Crook?
No…The Keating investigators found no illegal activities on McCains part, but found him guilty of ‘bad judgement’
Of course, what is considered “bad judgment” by a politician would be worth 1 to 5 in prison for anyone else…
I know everyone’s long gone, but such a great line has to be recognized!
Hilarious, and certainly lost on anyone here under 40.
OT but important. Just saw this in washington post, this is just part of the article. Who knew Diebold had changed its name? not i said the hen.
Both campaigns have lined up teams of lawyers to challenge any irregularities, from registrations to polling place problems to vote counts.
And experts say the problems ahead will be formidable, even if they don’t rise to the level of the Supreme Court challenge over the 2000 results.
“The voting process is going to be tested in a way it has not been in recent history,” said Tova Wang, vice president for research at Common Cause, a government watchdog group.
Recent local primaries have offered warning signs.
In the District last week, initial tallies were inflated by thousands of votes, causing chaos that night, and officials have yet to explain the problem.
In Palm Beach County, Fla., more than 3,500 ballots went missing in an August primary, forcing workers to hunt through bins and leaving a judicial election still undecided.
That same day, equipment problems in two other Florida jurisdictions delayed results for hours.
Premier Election Solutions, the company that makes many of the nation’s voting machines, last month acknowledged that software used in 34 states, including Virginia and Maryland, could cause votes to be dropped. The company, formerly called Diebold, said it has no fix for the problem now, but election officials can catch the errors and recover the votes through a routine process of double-checking electronic memory cards.
Any weak spots in the process in November, whether poorly trained poll workers, a confusing ballot design or faulty equipment, will be further stressed by turnout, including many first-time voters.
During this year’s presidential primaries, the number of voters hit an eight-year high in 36 states, according to Electionline.org, which monitors electoral reforms as part of the Pew Center on the States.
Maryland election officials said Tuesday that they expect 250,000 new voters to register by next month’s deadline. More than 280,000 Virginians have registered to vote since the beginning of the year.
In the battleground state of Nevada, there are 400,000 more voters registered than four years ago. More than 500,000 have registered in Indiana since the beginning of the year, prompting Secretary of State Todd Rokita to say this could be “the biggest Election Day in our nation’s history in terms of turnout.”
Federal officials estimate that 2 million poll workers will be needed to handle the turnout, twice 2004’s number and a goal states are scrambling to meet.
link to full article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..63_pf.html
The trial transcript has a long list of aged victims bilked by Keating. McCain defended Keating at FHLB and did not use the opportunity to defend them.
Can someome get that list up. EW? Teddy? Jane? Christy?
Oh my. OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS!
Bless you Teddy, and FDL, for recognizing MY SENATOR.
Is he REALLY THAT good a Senator?
Just stay tuned, dawgies.
He reminds me of Barack. Gobs of energy, skill and determination, with an ego big enough to dare tackle the big problems, but not so large that it eclipses his true honest-to-goodness public spirit.
And if you happen upon this, THANKS Sherrod!
Here is my response to the request for discussion – I worked for the law firm representing Keating when his S&L got audited by the Feds. I was a paralegal at the time working in the same office as where the audit was conducted. In sharing a ride home with one of the attorneys involved in the audit, I was told that Keating was making loans without any appraisals or other due diligence according to FSLIC regulations, but because he was making money “hand over fist,” the government auditors were prepared to look the other way. I have no knowledge of any specific political involvement on Lincoln S&L’s behalf, but the assumption was that since old Charlie was known to light cigars with $100 bills at parties, someone in a high place was taking care of him.