As Obama Blasts McCain On Keating Five His Campaign Features Another Alum Of That Scandal
Over the weekend the Obama campaign announced that they were going to dredge up the eighteen-year-old Keating Five scandal and nail McCain on it. The problem is that another Senator involved in Keating is out on the campaign trail stumping for Obama.
John Glenn. Yes, that John Glenn.
When the astronaut made way for the Boss on the Oval, 10,000 people roared in unison, “Bruuuuce!”
“You don’t get introduced by John Glenn every day,” Bruce Springsteen said, breaking into an impromptu version of Mr. Spaceman.
The Ohio State University campus was in a festive mood yesterday as the rock legend performed a seven-song, solo acoustic set on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The free event, one of several Springsteen is doing for the Illinois senator, highlighted Ohio’s early-voting law.
Wikipedia notes that ultimately both John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of any wrong-doing:
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of Glenn in the scheme was minimal, and the charges against him were dropped.[45] He was only criticized by the Committee for “poor judgment."[48]
The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was also minimal, and he too was cleared of all charges against him.[46][45] McCain was criticized by the Committee for exercising “poor judgment” when he met with the federal regulators on Keating’s behalf.[7] The report also said that McCain’s “actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him....Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate."[49] On his Keating Five experience, McCain has said: “The appearance of it was wrong. It’s a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."[7]
Regardless of the level of their involvement, both senators were greatly affected by it. McCain would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings was “the worst mistake of my life”.[50] Glenn has described the Senate Ethics Committee investigation as the low point of his life.[8]
As Ed Morrissey says, if Glenn is free of wrong-doing on Keating than so is McCain. Given that Glenn is working on behalf of Obama in Ohio, it hardly seems appropriate for Obama to go after McCain.
Morrissey further notes:
Is the Keating 5 scandal a legitimate political issue in this campaign? Yes. It involves McCain’s judgment and political record, and Obama can certainly raise it as a point for voters to consider. However, McCain has never denied using poor judgment in this case and has repeatedly apologized for it. He used that experience to commit himself to reforming the political system, angering fellow Republicans in fighting earmarks and pushing for campaign-finance reform. He has put his political career at risk with his partnerships with Russ Feingold and other Democrats in this mission, all of which springs from his close brush with dishonor over the Keating 5 scandal.
Indeed, and I would suggest that McCain’s experience with Keating has probably pushed him too far when it comes to campaign finance reform given how stringent (and, frankly, absurd) some of the regulations he’s supported and passed are.
But to suggest that McCain is some sort of criminal, or some sort of shady-dealer, because of the Keating scandal is stupid. And not likely to gain a lot of traction with the public.
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