Mike Pouraryan
Remember the Keating 5: John McCain’s Questionable Conduct
Oh how soon we forget. John McCain’s main staple is that he is the candidate of experience. Well unfortunately in this case with experience comes baggage. Senator Barack Obama has pledged to run a clean campaign; therefore, chances are you will not hear anything regarding the Keating 5 in the general election. It is my duty, however to remind those who have forgotten as well as educate first time voters.
After the deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980’s, savings and loans, associates (thrifts) could invest their depositor’s funds in to commercial real estate. Before that, they had been restricted to residential real estate only. The act of allow commercial real estate investments prompted several savings and loan companies to make high-risk investments. In reaction to this, the FHLBB (the feds) tried to hammer down on this high-risk investment pattern. The Reagan administration deregulated the banking industry so the two were always clashing. Reagan’s administration never submitted budgets to congress for funding to the FHLBB.
The fall of a failed thrift, Lincoln Savings and Loan Association prompted an investigation of five US Senators, Alan Cranston, Dennis Disincline, John Glenn, Ronald W. Riegle, and you guessed it, John McCain. The collapse of Lincoln cost taxpayers $3.4 billion dollars. The five US Senators were accused of improperly aided the Chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan.
As result of the trial before the Senate Ethics Committee, we learned that the Senators had been beneficiaries of a collective $300,000. Specifically John McCain received $112,000 from Keating’s relatives and employees to John McCain’s campaign. An Arizona newspaper reported John McCain also made several trips at Keating’s expense including three trips to the Keating’s immaculate Bahamas getaway in Cat Cay. In addition, McCain’s wife and father in law invested $359,00 in a Keating shopping center. In fact, it is the pressure from the investigation of the Keating 5, along with Cindy McCain’s back problems, which lead to her prescription drug addiction.
Ultimately the committee’s recommendation for Cranston was censure and the other four for “questionable conduct.”
John McCain runs on a platform of experience, but what exactly does he have experience in. He has experience in using his position in government to make his family and friends rich at the expense of the American people.
After the deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980’s, savings and loans, associates (thrifts) could invest their depositor’s funds in to commercial real estate. Before that, they had been restricted to residential real estate only. The act of allow commercial real estate investments prompted several savings and loan companies to make high-risk investments. In reaction to this, the FHLBB (the feds) tried to hammer down on this high-risk investment pattern. The Reagan administration deregulated the banking industry so the two were always clashing. Reagan’s administration never submitted budgets to congress for funding to the FHLBB.
My Microphone is as Upside Down as My Politics
The fall of a failed thrift, Lincoln Savings and Loan Association prompted an investigation of five US Senators, Alan Cranston, Dennis Disincline, John Glenn, Ronald W. Riegle, and you guessed it, John McCain. The collapse of Lincoln cost taxpayers $3.4 billion dollars. The five US Senators were accused of improperly aided the Chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan.
Ultimately the committee’s recommendation for Cranston was censure and the other four for “questionable conduct.”
John McCain runs on a platform of experience, but what exactly does he have experience in. He has experience in using his position in government to make his family and friends rich at the expense of the American people.
