BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

As I sit and think about John McCain, after his Nashville appearance, something about him just doesn’t ring true.  Maybe I’ve been watching too much Oprah in the afternoons.  Seeing John McCain play to a crowd too old to remember what they ate for breakfast, he portrayed himself as the All-American POW, who came home from war with a strength of conviction sufficient to elevate himself to Super Hero.  To hear him speak he possesses the ability to fight off all evil brought against the country he loves.  Of course, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines would do the real fighting, but at the will of another warrior.  Have you ever had a twitch in the gut that made you uneasy? 

McCain reiterates his straight talk express at every turn.  He uses his POW experience to endear himself to those of us who remember the Viet Nam Conflict (like Iraq, it was not a declared war).  And, heaven knows, everyone is willing to give the old dog his dues.  He served honorably in Nam.  But, so did hundreds, if not thousands, of others.

Many of the young voters aren’t interested in hearing memories of Viet Nam.  Many of the young black voters weren’t alive when Martin Luther King, Jr. was talking of ”the dream.”  I can’t dismiss either Nam or King.  Both are a part of my life, a big part.  In fact, the late sixties and early seventies were life changing.  I had friends who died in Nam.  I can remember exactly where I was when the news broke of King’s slaying.  I was moved from the quiet child into an adult activist.   

So, it was today that something in my gut knotted when I watched McCain.  His straight talk express seemed to derail in my mind.  And, memories began to surface.  Okay, so maybe I’m a little slow in getting on track myself.  But, I began to pull up news flashes of John McCain from the past.  McCain and his first wife had divorced based on his admitted infidelity.  So much for honor!  But, that really wasn’t what I was looking for.  What he does in his spare time is of little interest to me.  But, there was something else… something that clouded the ethics of John McCain and I was still trying to recall exactly what it was.

Ah, yes!… John McCain and the Keating 5.  Back in those days, the 1980’s, it was fashionable to assign a number behind a name, indicating how many people were involved in the scandals.  Charles Keating had a number of “5″.  McCain was one of the five.

According to a New York Times piece named The Keating Shuffle, published December 4, 1991:

In fact, on Sept. 27, 1987 — more than four years ago — National Mortgage News (then called National Thrift News) published a report of the meeting that took place between Senators Alan Cranston, Donald Riegle, Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn and John McCain and the regulators who were attempting to stop the outrageous activities of the Lincoln Federal Savings and Loan Association.

That report was sent to every major publication in the country, but few paid attention. Only when Lincoln failed — two years too late — and the enormous cost to the taxpayer was disclosed, did the action of the Keating Five become news.

So, John McCain was one of the Keating five.  Charles Keating was convicted of securities fraud.  Just as a note, Judge Lance Ito, known to most of us as the judge in the O.J. Simpson trial, presided.  Later, the Keating conviction was overturned on technicalities based on Ito’s jury instructions.  Years later Keating was set for retrial.  He entered a guilty plea to four counts of fraud.

The Keating scandal goes back to the time when the Savings and Loans were failing faster than anyone could count.  One of George “The Decider” Bush’s brothers was another name that surfaced with the failing Savings and Loans in Colorado.  Ah!  The good old days… back in the 1980’s.

On December 8, 1991, The New York Times reported:

If the dictionary had an entry under “savings and loan scandal,” it would probably say, “see Charles H. Keating Jr.” In the course of his four-month fraud trial stemming from the $2.6 billion fall of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association — the single most expensive savings and loan failure — Mr. Keating became known as the man who tempted powerful senators to their political disgrace [emphasis added], and plucked the life savings out of the purses of gray-haired ladies.

And, so it seems that John McCain was one of those tempted powerful senators.  Keating who had his primary business in Phoenix, Arizona, John McCain’s home state, apparently began early making contributions to Senator McCain’s campaigns.

Again, from a New York Times article dated April 9, 1990:

Senator Riegle has acknowledged that he received large campaign contributions from Mr. Keating and his associates early in 1987. Soon afterward, he urged Edwin J. Gray, who then was the chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, to meet with five Senators who were concerned about the regulatory treatment of Lincoln. Mr. Keating had contributed heavily to the campaigns of the five Senators, who include four Democrats, Alan Cranston of California, Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, John Glenn of Ohio and Senator Riegle, and one Republican, John McCain of Arizona.

While a couple of the Keating 5 met their political ends, McCain escaped indictment and stayed in the good graces of Arizona’s voters.

So, did McCain benefit from his meetings with Charles Keating and his meeting with regulators on behalf of Keating… or did McCain owe it to his friend?

New York Times article excerpts from December 22, 1989:

John McCain’s Senate colleagues have just begun to notice how troubled he seems. But his friends back home have been noticing the telltale signs for months.

Normally given to expansive gestures and almost hypertensive movement, he seems, they say, to have visibly shriveled, hunching his shoulders and clasping his arms tightly about his chest as if to ward off blows. And there are the jokes, sarcastic, self-deprecating - funny, but not quite.

So when the Senator rose from the dinner table at Tom and Lupe Espinoza’s home in Phoenix last week for the goodbyes, the guests exchanged worried glances as he started to speak. He thanked the hosts for a lovely meal, for their friendship during ”this difficult time,” and then he tried to lighten the awkward moment.

”You know what Chairman Mao said - It’s always darkest just before it’s totally black.” ….

Mr. McCain and four Democratic Senators are under investigation to determine whether contributions to their campaigns from Mr. Keating influenced their intervenion with Federal regulators in 1987 to try and save his ailing institution.

Mr. McCain has impressed political scorekeepers on Capitol Hill with his mea-culpa defense, admitting that it was a serious error to meet with the regulators. Bolstered by a transcript from one of those two meetings and by statements by the regulators themselves, he has succeeded, at least here in Washington, in putting some distance between himself and senators who went to greater lengths on Mr. Keating’s behalf. ‘Duty, Honor and Country’  ….

I believe in duty, honor and country, and I never thought I’d be embroiled in something like this,” said Mr. McCain, a Navy war hero who was held prisoner in Vietnam. Fumbling for the words, and apologizing ”because it sounds corny,” his explanation is tangled up with family tradition and patriotism, with growing up in the shadow of a father and a grandfather who were four-star admirals.

The Senator began explaining it all in late October after a series of Arizona newspaper articles about his ties to Mr. Keating. The point he is desperate to convey is that he washed his hands of the whole thing once regulators outlined their case against Mr. Keating and his financial institution. Unspoken, but clearly intended as part of the message is that some of his colleagues, including Arizona’s Democratic Senator, Dennis DeConcini, cannot make the same claim.  ….

In the same article McCain stated:

”I met him [Keating] in 1981 at a Navy League dinner in Phoenix. He was the state’s largest home-builder, a contributor to every charity in Arizona. He was very pleasant. He told me I was one of his heroes. My wife and I saw him a couple of times that year, and when I announced I was going to run for Congress, I went to him for financial support, and he helped me, in 1982, in 1984 and in my Senate campaign in 1986.”

”In those days, he didn’t want anything from me,” the Senator continued. ”He never asked me for anything of significance until the thing with the regulators.” …

…. Mr. McCain, for reasons he finds difficult to explain, ignored the advice of his staff and attended the meetings anyway…..

”I was very, very concerned about the appearance of the meetings before I went,” he said. ”I’m a big boy. I made the decision.” His first real effort to explain came at a Phoenix news conference a week after The Arizona Republic reported that he and his family had vacationed at Mr. Keating’s home in the Bahamas in 1984, 1985 and 1986, and had only belatedly reimbursed the developer’s company for flights there on the corporate jet.

The paper also reported that the Senator’s wife, Cindy, and her father, a wealthy beer distributor and prominent Phoenix businessman, invested $359,100 from their own comapny in a Keating shopping center partnership in 1986.

…”If this had been just a John McCain story, it would be over by now,” the Senator said. ”But it’s about Keating and it’s about the savings and loan bailout and it’s about campaign finance.

In the end Senator McCain continued his political career and now seeks the seat in the Oval Office.  Perhaps, this old news is of little interest, but in a time when the Senator is resting on his laurels from Viet Nam, I do believe it fair to remind ourselves that between the Viet Nam Conflict and now, Senator McCain, while not indicted has not always exhibited the best judgment, particularly in the 1980’s.  There is the perception of inappropriate use of his political influence within our government.  I’m not sure if Senator McCain believes we should have a more transparent government or perhaps, an opaque one.

Maybe that’s why my gut got the twitch today.

John McCain, Republican, candidates