The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.

Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of $2 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions that Keating had made to each of the senators, totalling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".

All five of the senators involved served out their terms. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they both succeeded. McCain would go on to become the Republican nominee for president in 2008.

Note the last sentence of the second paragraph. Seems Glenn "gasp' was as much of a scoundrel as McCain but both were guilty of.................nothing.

Very odd indeed.

Source is Wikipedia and the DNC blog.

Have any of you morons commented on the "fact" that four of the Keating five were Democrats? Jefferson got your tongue?

example of how he "reaches across the aisle"!

By the way, in case you've been on another planet, it's McCain that's running for president, moron. It doesn't matter if 93 others were Dems (becuase they're not running for Pres. I typed it slowly so you could grasp that)

Anyway, I think it's just super that he didn't go to jail for meeting with regulators about a law enforcement matter on behalf of Keating and receiving large campaign contributions. The causality couldnt' be proven and so I'm sure the American public will just let it fly. Maybe if lobbyists and thier corrosive effect or worse if McCain had ever trumpted such stuff Americans would care...

Oh yeah, that is the way it is. God is he fucked.

McCain was judged to have exercised "poor judgment" which isn't exactly a very ringing endorsement of ones Character when he is now running for President.

From the same Wikipedia article that you quote:

"

...

McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981,[11] and McCain was the only one of the five with close social and personal ties to Keating.[33][34] Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.[27] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[35] In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.[7][36] Because of these connections, Phoenix New Times writer Tom Fitzpatrick stated in 1989 that McCain was the "most reprehensible" of the five.[37] ..."

The facts are: McCain gets involved in economics and Americans have to bail out his cronies to the tune of billions. As the old saying goes; "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." McCain fooled me back then, he isn't going to fool me or most other Americans this time.

All the time Keating was screwing investors out of millions he was also running a campaign against obscenity... :~)

Explains why the neolibs love him so.

Lets see. The Keating Five is important because we are in an econmic crisis that may or may not involve the need for sound judgement and reflection on past associations? Is that accurate Bonzo? However,the terrorist crisis we are in does not require sound judgement or reflection on past terrorist associations. Is that an accurate interpretation of your thought pattern?

I am just trying to get a better understanding of McCain's Character. In any Presidential election, many American voters tend to vote for candidates that meet a certain level of high moral Character. My recent concern about McCain was raised by the Article you posted about the Keating Scandal in which McCain was lambasted by the Regulatory Agency as "exercising poor judgement".

My concern about McCain is that it appears to be well documented that McCain accepted a lot of very questionable "favors" from a self admitted crook(Keating) probably amounting to 10's of thousands of dollars perhaps even hundreds of thousands of dollars. To me, that raises the question, did McCain report these "favors" to the IRS? How many other favors did he accept? Were any of these favors bribes as opposed to open donations? Were any of these favors from Groups that he was elected to oversee?

After Keating was hit with a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action, filed against him by the regulators, Keating was asked by a Reporter whether his financial support to any of the Keating 5 (McCain, Deconci, Glen, etc)" caused them to take up Keating's cause. Keating said: "... I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope [that my payoffs to the Keating 5 helped]."

I got it. So being the number two recipient of money from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac is not worrisome? In fact the number of neolibs recieving money from those institutions is monumental but not a concern? Is that right? Number one is Dodd. You know number two.

due to their Position, especially in Government. I have no sympathy at all towards anyone that gets caught abusing their Position of Trust. I think that if one is elected into a Position of Trust than one had better be and act in a trustworthy manner.

If actual abuse of their Position is caught and proven then those people should be run out of Government.

By a landslide! And what is McCain's track record on terrorism? He declared the Afghan war "over".

No sound judgement there,No Sound judgement in picking a VP candidate(Palin is truly ignorant), and no sound judgement on the state pf the economy either.

In fact, McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER(STILL!!) was taking Freddie Mac Lobbyist money(MILLIONS!) up until LAST MONTH!!

McCain is bought and paid for.

And McCain? McCain blew his "straight-talker express" image with the lies used in his ads.