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JOSHUA HOLLAND, ALTERNET - McCain's political colleagues know another
side of the action hero -- a volatile man with a hair-trigger temper,
who shouted at Sen. Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor to "shut up," called
his fellow Republican senators "shithead," "fucking jerk," "asshole,"
and joked in 1998 at a Republican fundraiser about the teenage daughter
of President Clinton, "Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly?
Because Janet Reno is her father." [In 2006], McCain suddenly rushed up
to a friend of mine, a prominent Washington attorney, at a social event,
and threatened to beat him up because he represented a client McCain
happened to dislike, and then, just as suddenly, profusely and tearfully
apologized.
And McCain's problems run far deeper than his irascibility and some
gaffes on the stump. His real challenge is that his popularity -- his
viability -- rests almost entirely on two narratives that have
absolutely no connection with reality: his reputation as a
straight-talking "maverick" and a moderate, and his "brave" support for
Bush's troop escalation, a policy that's led to the widely-embraced but
wholly false idea that "the surge is working.". . .
The reality is that John McCain is the antithesis of the principled
straight-talker. When he was asked in a recent debate whether, as
president, he would sign into law the comprehensive immigration reform
bill that he's championed for the past three years, he responded: "No, I
would not, because we know what the situation is today." Yes, the
situation today is that he's running for the Republican nomination.
As journalist and blogger Steve Benen noted, that's only one of a number
of measures that McCain has worked hard to pass and is now saying he'd
oppose:
- McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even
volunteering to testify on the treaty's behalf before a Senate
committee. Now, if the treaty comes to the Senate floor, he's vowed to
vote against it.
- McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal
status to illegal immigrants' kids who graduate from high school. In
2007, to make the far-right base happy, he voted against the bill he had
taken the lead on.
- In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying
coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving
"feedback" on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that
he now opposes the measure he'd backed.
- McCain used to support major campaign-finance reform measures that
bore his name. In June 2006, McCain announced his opposition to a major
McCain-Feingold provision.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/75845/?page-entire
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MCCAIN AND THE KEATING FIVE
WIKIPEDIA - McCain's upwards political trajectory was jolted when he
became enmeshed in the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s. In the context
of the Savings and Loan crisis of that decade, Charles Keating Jr.'s
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, a subsidiary of his American
Continental Corporation, was insolvent due to some bad loans. In order
to regain solvency, Lincoln sold investment in a real estate venture as
a FDIC insured savings account. This caught the eye of federal
regulators who were looking to shut it down.
It is alleged that Keating contacted five senators to whom he made
contributions. McCain was one of those senators and he met at least
twice in 1987 with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank
Board, seeking to prevent the government's seizure of Lincoln. Between
1982 and 1987, McCain received approximately $112,000 in political
contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's
wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center
in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his
family and baby-sitter made at least nine trips at Keating's expense,
sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. After learning Keating
was in trouble over Lincoln, McCain paid for the air trips totaling
$13,433.
Eventually the real estate venture failed, leaving many broke. Federal
regulators ultimately filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and fraud
suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's deposits to
his family and into political campaigns. The five senators came under
investigation for attempting to influence the regulators. In the end,
none of the senators were convicted of any crime, although McCain was
rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for exercising "poor judgment"
for intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating.
On his Keating Five experience, McCain 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."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
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WIKIPEDIA - McCain's upwards political trajectory was jolted when he
became enmeshed in the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s. In the context
of the Savings and Loan crisis of that decade, Charles Keating Jr.'s
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, a subsidiary of his American
Continental Corporation, was insolvent due to some bad loans. In order
to regain solvency, Lincoln sold investment in a real estate venture as
a FDIC insured savings account. This caught the eye of federal
regulators who were looking to shut it down.
It is alleged that Keating contacted five senators to whom he made
contributions. McCain was one of those senators and he met at least
twice in 1987 with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank
Board, seeking to prevent the government's seizure of Lincoln. Between
1982 and 1987, McCain received approximately $112,000 in political
contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's
wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center
in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his
family and baby-sitter made at least nine trips at Keating's expense,
sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. After learning Keating
was in trouble over Lincoln, McCain paid for the air trips totaling
$13,433.
Eventually the real estate venture failed, leaving many broke. Federal
regulators ultimately filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and fraud
suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's deposits to
his family and into political campaigns. The five senators came under
investigation for attempting to influence the regulators. In the end,
none of the senators were convicted of any crime, although McCain was
rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for exercising "poor judgment"
for intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating.
On his Keating Five experience, McCain 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."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
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