McCain And Keating…An Old Pile Of Not Much

The Obama campaign and its worshipers in the media are responding to the McCain/Palin attacks featuring Bill Ayers with two words…Charles Keating.

For those who don’t remember this very old scandal (it dates back to 1987) Charles Keating ran a savings and loan that eventually collapsed, along with many others. Keating was politically connected (though that didn't save him from going to jail) and five Senators were brought up on ethics charges for improperly pressuring regulators on his behalf.

One of them was John McCain. The other four were…Democrats.

McCain was pretty much exonerated, with the committee saying only that he exercised ‘poor judgment’ by attending a meeting with regulators. McCain was never found to have exerted any influence on behalf of Keating.

In fact, it’s likely that McCain was only kept in the case because to have removed him from it would have meant only Democrats would have been involved. That's not McCain spin, that's from Bob Bennett, the Senate’s own investigator and noted Democrat.

"It was clear that McCain should not have been at the table nor should Glenn," Bennett said. "I felt it was unfair for McCain to be included as part of the Keating Five." Bennett stressed that he was not speaking as part of the campaign, though he noted he also represented McCain in his recent battles with the New York Times.

No less an authority than the NY Times (safe link to the Weekly Standard) agreed. Of course, that was back in 1995 when McCain was still their favorite Republican.

I'm not saying that Keating was a good guy or that the collapse of his S&L didn't cost a lot of money, I'm just saying he and McCain don't equal Obama and the terrorist Bill "We Didn't Bomb Enough" Ayers.

Strangely, if Obama weren't such a leftist tool I’d enjoy seeing McCain getting slammed for this. After all, it was his involvement in the Keating Five that gave him such an interest in reworking the First Amendment campaign finance reform. So even though we are all paying for his ‘sins’, there are bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Oh and for the Obamabots who say, "Ayers is a big pile of not much and Obama was only 8"...Shut up.

Obama knew who Ayers was, what he had done and what he believed and still believes in and yet as an adult decided he was the kind of man he wanted to do business with.

Even if you accept the worst interpretation of Keating, unlike Ayers he never tied to kill people, including a sleeping child.

posted by DrewM. at 06:48 PM

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