Apparently the Obama campaign was just *waiting* for McCain-Palin to go
negative, because there's a new website up today that will have a
special video about McCain's connection to the Keating Five a bit later.

The site is http://keatingeconomics.com/

A few highlights:

* McCain Received $166,000 In Campaign Contributions from Charles
Keating and his Associates. “Together with friends and associates,
Keating contributed $56,000 to McCain's first House race, another
$56,000 to the second and $54,000 to his 1986 Senate campaign,”
contributions that were key to early success as a politician. [New York
Times, 5/25/97]
* McCain Used Keating’s Private Planes on Nine Occasions. “From
August 1984 to August 1986, Sen. John McCain and his family flew across
the country and to the Bahamas on at least nine occasions at Charles H
Keating Jr.'s expense,” often to stay at the Keatings’ exclusive Cat Cay
getaway. [Arizona Republic, 10/8/89]
* McCain Had Direct Financial Ties To Keating. Keating brought in
McCain’s wife and father-in-law as the largest investors in an Arizona
shopping center investment. Fountain Square Shopping Center was a
no-risk investment that virtually guaranteed a 25% return and a
“significant tax write-off” through a tax shelter technique available to
the wealthy that was soon outlawed. When reporters first questioned the
deal, McCain said to reporters “It’s up to you to find that out, kids.”
[Arizona Republic, 10/8/89]
* McCain Originally Denied Reports of Connection. “When the story
broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. ‘You're a liar,’ McCain said”
when asked about the investments. He challenged reporters saying, ‘It's
up to you to find that out, kids.’” [Arizona Republic, 3/1/2007]

* McCain Rebuked By Senate Ethics Committee For Exercising “Poor
Judgment.” In 1990, the bipartisan (three members of each party) Senate
Ethics Committee rebuked McCain “for exercising ‘poor judgment’ for
intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating.” [Arizona
Republic, 3/1/2007]

*Keating’s S&L Was Declared Insolvent; $3.4 Billion Bailout Most
Expensive in Meltdown. Federal regulators declared Lincoln Savings and
Loan insolvent. It ended up costing taxpayers $3.4 billion to clean up
the mess and cover federally-insured deposits at Lincoln, making it the
most expensive failure in the entire S&L meltdown. [Washington Post,
11/29/92; New York Times, 2/21/08]

*Keating Also Bilked 23,000 Investors – Many Elderly – With Junk
Bonds. As his deeds unraveled under the scrutiny of regulators and civil
and criminal court cases, it became clear that he had sold worthless
junk bonds to 23,000 investors, many of them elderly retirees who had
thought their investments were insured and lost their lost savings to
Keating’s crimes. [Associated Press, 2/23/08]



John McCain and Charles Keating...mavericks.

*Keating Was Found Guilty of 73 Counts of Fraud, Lost Two
Criminal And One Civil Case. “a federal jury convicted him of 73 counts
of wire and bankruptcy fraud in the collapse of American Continental and
Lincoln,” a keystone of the Savings & Loan scandal as Keating “looted”
the bank. Keating was also found guilty in civil court and lost a
massive class action suit by investors he bilked. [Arizona Republic,
3/1/2007; Associated Press, 4/7/99]