The McCain Campaign Turns Ugly

Everyone predicted it. All of the liberal commentators predicted that when the going got tough in the presidential campaign, John McCain and the Republican leaders would cease debating the issues and would stoop to ugly, negative, personal attacks against Barack Obama.

It is the modus operandi used by Republicans in recent presidential elections. Now we have a broad campaign by McCain and his spokesmen to paint Barack Obama as a dangerous radical.

Sarah Palin, who is more of a hissing snake than a pit bull with lipstick, speaks about Obama “palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.” She is referring to William Ayers, a college professor in Chicago who was once a member of the “Weather Underground,” a radical 1960s anti-war organization. The Republicans want to charge Obama with guilt by association because of actions that were committed by the Weathermen back when Barack was eight years old.

When Barack Obama first came into contact with William Ayers over thirty years later, Ayers was a rehabilitated and respectable Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author or editor of 15 books on education. Ayers was an advisor to Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley who recently stated that he has long consulted Ayers on school issues and called him "a valued member of the Chicago community." The city gave Ayers its Citizen of the Year award in 1997 for his work on behalf of education..

Obama and Ayers first met in 1995 when they were separately appointed to a committee designed to reform and improve education in Chicago and throughout the United States. There is no evidence that Obama and Ayers ever became “pals” or social friends. They were simply acquaintances. Later in 1995, Ayers hosted a gathering at which then State Senator Alice Palmer introduced Obama as her chosen successor for her State Senate seat.

Compare Obama’s casual acquaintanceship with Ayers to John McCain’s disgraceful embroilment with a con man and (ultimately) convicted felon named Charles Keating. In the 1980s Keating, who lived in Arizona, was the owner of American Continental Corporation (American) which was the parent owner of a California bank named “Lincoln Savings and Loan Association” (Lincoln). Keating liked to spread his money around Washington, and had paid for considerable influence with a number of Senators, including McCain.

McCain was a close personal friend of Keating’s. Between 1982 and 1987 McCain received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, in April 1986, McCain’s wife Cindy and her father, Jim Hensley, invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center. McCain and his family made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s private jet. Three of the trips were made as vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.

Beginning in 1986, Lincoln came under investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) because of risky investments that were exposing the government’s insurance funds to huge losses. Keating decided to collect on his financial investment in the Senate and called upon McCain and four other senators (Collectively known as the “Keating Five”) to intervene with the FHLBB and stop the investigation.

The Keating Five met with the FHLBB on two separate occasions, and put strong pressure on the board to ease-up on Lincoln. As a result of those meetings, the FHLBB delayed action against Lincoln. During this time, because American was desperate for cash, Keating arranged for bank employees to convince depositors to swap their federally-insured certificates of deposit for higher-yielding but uninsured bond certificates of American. Later, when American and Lincoln collapsed in bankruptcy, investors lost millions of dollars. Keating was subsequently prosecuted in a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action and was sentenced to twelve years in prison.

The Senate Ethics Committee held hearings. McCain ratted on his fellow senators and leaked to reporters which senators were most responsible for doing Keating’s bidding. The Committee let McCain off with a slap on the wrist, criticizing him for “poor judgment.” Critics denounced the “whitewashing” of McCain. Tom Fitzpatrick of the Phoenix News Times condemned McCain as the “Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five.”

One thing became clear. McCain, who claimed to be a “straight talk” maverick, was a commodity that could be purchased in Washington D.C. for the right price.