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When purple things are pulsating on your mind, I'm the one whose clock you want to clean. Aiding is Sparky, the Astral Plane Zen Pup Dog from his mountain stronghold on the Northernmost Island of the Happy Ninja Island chain, this blog will also act as a journal to my wacky antics at an entertainment company and the progress of my self published comic book, The Deposit Man which only appears when I damn well feel like it. Real Soon Now.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Sparly — It's not Alex Keating but let's remember this:
The Keating 5

Alan Cranston (D-CA)
Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ)
John Glenn (D-OH)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Donald W. Riegle (D-MI)

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 aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).

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. 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 were both re-elected.

Circumstances

See also: Savings and Loan crisis

The U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.[1]

The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, the lowest rate since World War II.[2]

The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan: Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. Lincoln's chairman was Charles Keating, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln.[3] In the four years since Keating's American Continental Corporation (ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln's assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion.[4] Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors' money, a change of which Keating and other savings and loan operators took advantage.[4][5] Savings and loans established connections to many members of Congress, by supplying them with needed funds for campaigns through legal donations.[5] Lincoln's particular investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.[6]

Corruption allegations

The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.

Beginning in 1985, Edwin J. Gray, chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), feared that the savings industry's risky investment practices were exposing the government's insurance funds to huge losses.[6] Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in "direct investments",[6] and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments.[7] Lincoln had become burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986,[6] its investment practices were being investigated and audited by the FHLBB:[8] in particular, whether it had violated these direct investment rules; Lincoln had directed FDIC-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures.[4] By the end of 1986, the FHLBB had found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million.[6]

Keating had earlier taken several measures to oppose Gray and the FHLBB, including recruiting a study from then-private economist Alan Greenspan saying that direct investments were not harmful,[6] and getting President Ronald Reagan to make a recess appointment of a Keating ally, Atlanta real estate developer Lee H. Henkel Jr., to an open seat on the FHLBB.[6] But by March 1987, Henkel had resigned, upon news of his having large loans due to Lincoln.[6] Meanwhile, the Senate had changed control from Republican to Democratic during the 1986 Congressional elections, placing several Democratic senators in key positions, and starting in January 1987, Keating's staff was putting pressure on Cranston to remove Gray from any FHLBB discussion regarding Lincoln.[9] The following month, Keating began large-scale contributions into Cranston's project to increase California voter registration.[9] In February 1987, Keating met with Riegle and began contributing to Riegle's 1988 re-election campaign.[10]

It appeared as though the government might seize Lincoln for being insolvent.[7] The investigation was, however, taking a long time.[8] Keating was asking that Lincoln be given a lenient judgment by the FHLBB, so that it could limit its high risk investments and get into the safe (at the time) home mortgage business, thus allowing the business to survive. A letter from audit firm Arthur Young & Co. bolstered Keating's case that the government investigation was taking a long time.[11] Keating now wanted the five senators to intervene with the FHLBB on his behalf.

By March 1987, Riegle was telling Gray that "Some senators out west are very concerned about the way the bank board is regulating Lincoln Savings," adding somewhat ominously, "I think you need to meet with the senators. You'll be getting a call."[10] Keating and DeConcini were asking McCain to travel to San Francisco to meet with regulators regarding Lincoln Savings; McCain refused.[11][7] DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous about interfering.[7] Keating called McCain a "wimp" behind his back, and on March 24, Keating and McCain had a heated, contentious meeting.[11]

On April 2, 1987, a meeting with chairman Gray of the FHLBB was held in DeConcini's Capitol office, with Senators Cranston, Glenn, and McCain also in attendance.[7] The senators requested that no staff be present.[12] DeConcini started the meeting with a mention of "our friend at Lincoln."[7] Gray told the assembled senators that he did not know the particular details of the status of Lincoln Savings and Loan, and that the senators would have to go to the bank regulators in San Francisco that had oversight jurisdiction for the bank. Gray did offer to set up a meeting between those regulators and the senators.[7]

On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting[4] with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini's office, to discuss the government's investigation of Lincoln.[11][7] Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle.[7] The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting.[7] DeConcini began the meeting by saying, "We wanted to meet with you because we have determined that potential actions of yours could injure a constituent."[13] McCain said, "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." Glenn said, "To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," while DeConcini said, "What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act? ... It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators."[7] The regulators then revealed that Lincoln was under criminal investigation on a variety of serious charges, at which point McCain severed all relations with Keating.[7] Glenn continued to help Keating after that revelation, by setting up a meeting with then-House Majority Leader Jim Wright, which turned out to be the only questionable thing Glenn did throughout the whole affair.[14]

The San Francisco regulators finished their report in May 1987 and recommended that Lincoln be seized by the government due to unsound lending practices.[7][4] Gray, whose time as chair was about to expire, deferred action on the report, saying that his adversarial relationship with Keating would make any action he took seem vindictive, and that instead the incoming chair should take over the decision.[6] Meanwhile Keating filed a lawsuit against the FHLBB, saying it had leaked confidential information about Lincoln.[6] The new FHLBB chair was M. Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating and took no action on the report, saying its evidence was insufficient.[4][7] In September 1987, the Lincoln investigation was removed from the San Francisco group and in May 1988, a new audit of Lincoln began in Washington.[7]

News of the April meetings between the senators and the FHLBB officials first appeared in National Thrift News in September 1987, but was only sporadically covered by the general media for the next year and a half.[15] In early 1988, The Detroit News ran a story on Riegle's participation,[16] which Riegle responded to on Meet the Press by denying an interceding on Lincoln's behalf,[13] before returning Keating's campaign contributions back to him.[16] In spring 1988, the Los Angeles Times ran a short piece in their business section, but their political reporters did not follow up on it; two isolated, inside page mentions by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal similarly failed to develop further.[16] As media critic Howard Kurtz would later write, "the saga of Charles Keating took years to penetrate the national consciousness."[16]

Failure of Lincoln and investigation of the senators

Lincoln stayed in business; from mid-1987 to April 1989, its assets grew from $3.91 billion to $5.46 billion.[6] During this time, the parent American Continental Corporation was desperate for cash inflow to make up for losses in real estate purchases and projects.[17] Lincoln's branch managers and tellers convinced customers to replace their federally-insured certificates of deposit with higher-yielding bond certificates of American Continental; the customers later said they were never properly informed that the bonds were uninsured and very risky given the state of American Continental's finances.[17] Indeed the regulators had already adjudged the bonds to have no solvent backing.[12] Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair L. William Seidman would later write that Lincoln push to get depositors to switch was "one of the most heartless and cruel frauds in modern memory."[12]

American Continental went bankrupt in April 1989, and Lincoln was seized by the FHLBB on April 14, 1989.[4] More than 21,000 mostly elderly investors lost their life savings. This total came to about $285 million.[citation needed] The federal government was liable for $2 billion to cover Lincoln's losses when it seized the institution.[17]

Keating was hit with a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action, filed against him by the regulators.[4] In talking to reporters in April, Keating said, "One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."[18]

In the wake of the Lincoln failure, press attention to the senators began to pick up, with a July 1989 Los Angeles Times article about Cranston's role.[16] With a couple of months, Arizona Republic and Washington Post reporters were investigating McCain's personal relationships with Keating.[16]

On September 25, 1989, several Republicans from Ohio filed an ethics complaint against Glenn, charging that he had improperly intervened on Keating's behalf.[19][20] When the former chairman of the FHLBB went public about all five of the senators' assistance to Keating, that set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The initial charges against the five Senators were made on October 13, 1989 by Common Cause, a public interest group, who asked for the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the actions of the senators relative to Lincoln and the contributions received from Keating and whether they violated the rules of the Senate or federal election laws.[21][22][23][20] But the most public attention came from the House Banking Committee, whose new chair Henry B. Gonzalez held 50 hours of hearings into the Lincoln failure and associated events.[16]

By November 1989, the estimated cost of the overall savings and loan crisis had reached $500 billion, and the media's formerly erratic coverage had turned around and become a feeding frenzy.[16][24] The Lincoln matter was getting large-scale press attention and the senators became commonly known as the "Keating Five".[25][26] All the senators denied they had done anything improper in the matter, and said Keating's contributions made no difference to their actions.[19] The senators' initial defense of their actions rested on Keating being one of their constituents; McCain said, "I have done this kind of thing many, many times," and said the Lincoln case was like "helping the little lady who didn't get her Social Security."[25]

Relationships of senators to Keating

Much of the press attention to the Keating Five focused on the relationships of each of the senators to Keating.

Cranston had received $39,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1986 Senate re-election campaign.[4] Furthermore, Keating had donated some $850,000 to assorted groups founded by Cranston or controlled by him, and another $85,000 to the California Democratic Party.[4] Cranston considered Keating a constituent because Lincoln was based in California.[25]

DeConcini had received about $48,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign.[4] In September 1989, DeConcini stated he would return the money.[4] DeConcini considered Keating a constituent because Keating lived in Arizona; they were also long-time friends.[25]

Glenn had received $34,000 in direct contributions from Keating and his associates for his 1984 presidential nomination campaign, and a political action committee tied to Glenn had received an additional $200,000.[4] Glenn considered Keating a constituent because one of Keating's other business concerns was headquartered in Ohio.[25]

McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981,[11] and McCain was the closest socially to Keating of the five senators.[27] Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.[25] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[28] 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][29]

Riegle had received some $76,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign.[4] Riegle later announced in April 1988 he was returning the money.[6] Riegle's constituency connection to Keating was that Keating's Hotel Pontchartrain was located in Michigan.[25]

Senate Ethics Committee investigation and findings

History

The Senate Ethics Committee's investigation began on November 17, 1989.[30] It focused on all five senators and subsequently lasted 22 months,[22] with 9 months of active investigation and 7 weeks of hearings.[31] The committee was composed of three Democratic senators, Howell Heflin (chair), David Pryor, and Terry Sanford, and three Republican senators, Warren Rudman (vice chair), Trent Lott, and Jesse Helms.[30] Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett was appointed as special outside counsel to the committee, tasked with conducting the investigation.[30]

Initially the committee investigated in private. On September 10, 1990, Bennett submitted a confidential report, which soon leaked, that recommended that the committee continue its investigation of Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle, but take no action against Glenn and McCain,[21] as there was insufficient evidence to pursue the latter two.[32] Bennett also recommended that public hearings be held.[20]

Speculation that this would be the decision had already taken place, and both Glenn and McCain were frustrated that the long delay in resolving their cases was damaging their reputations.[32] However, there were political implications, as the removal of the two would eliminate the only Republican from the case.[32] The committee's work was further made difficult by there being no specific rule that governed the propriety of members intervening with federal regulators.[32] My mid-October, several Republican senators, including former Ethics Committee chair Ted Stevens, were taking the unusual step of publicly complaining about the Ethics Committee's inaction, saying that it was unfair to Glenn and McCain, that the whole lengthy process was unfair to all five, and that political motives might be behind the delays.[33] Eventually, the committee could not agree on the Bennett recommendation regarding Glenn and McCain:[21] vice chair Rudman agreed with Bennett, chair Heflin did not.[14] On October 23, 1990, the committee decided to keep all five senators in the case, and scheduled public hearings to question them and other witnesses.[21][20] These hearings would take place from November 15 through January 16, 1991.[21]

The committee reported on the other four senators in February 1991, but delayed its final report on Cranston until November 1991.[31] During that period there was partisan-aligned disagreement within the committee over how to treat Cranston, and in August 1991 a special counsel's report was released by Helms.[34] A delay was also caused when Pryor suffered a heart attack in April 1991, and was replaced on the committee by Jeff Bingaman.[35] Bingaman spent months learning the complex materials involved in the matter, only to resign in July due to a conflict of interest.[35] Pryor was reassigned to the committee in August 1991, so as to not further delay its deliberations.[35]

The various committee reports addressed each of the five senators.

Cranston: reprimanded

The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Cranston had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB.[36] He had received more than a million dollars from Keating, had done more arm-twisting than the other Senators on Keating's behalf, and was the only Senator officially rebuked by the Senate in this matter.[37]

Cranston was given the harshest penalty of all five Senators. In November of 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to reprimand Cranston, instead of the more severe measure that was under consideration: censure by the full Senate. Extenuating circumstances that helped to save Cranston from censure were the fact that he was suffering from cancer, and that he had decided to not seek reelection, according to chair Heflin. The Ethics Committee took the unusual step of delivering its reprimand to Cranston during a formal session of the full Senate, with almost all 100 Senators present.[22]

Cranston was not accused of breaking any specific laws or rules, but of violating standards that Heflin said “do not permit official actions to be linked with fund-raising.” The Ethics Committee officially found that Cranston’s conduct had been “improper and repugnant”, deserving of "the fullest, strongest and most severe sanction which the committee has the authority to impose." The sanction was in these words: "the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, on behalf of and in the name of the United States Senate, does hereby strongly and severely reprimand Sen. Alan Cranston.”[22]

After the Senate reprimanded Cranston, he took to the Senate floor to deny key charges against him. In response, vice-chair Rudman charged that Cranston’s response to the reprimand was “arrogant, unrepentant and a smear on this institution," and that Cranston was wrong to imply that everyone does what Cranston had done. Alan Dershowitz, serving as Senator Cranston's attorney, alleged that other Senators had merely been better at “covering their tracks.”[22]

Riegle and DeConcini: criticized for acting improperly

The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Riegle and DeConcini had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB.[36]

DeConcini later charged that McCain had leaked to the press sensitive information about the investigation that came from some of the closed proceedings of the Ethics Committee.[7] McCain denied doing so, although one congressional investigator concluded that McCain had been one of the main leakers during that time.[7]

Glenn and McCain: cleared of impropriety but criticized for poor judgment

The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of Glenn in the scheme was minimal, and the charges against him were dropped.[36] He was only criticized by the Committee for "poor judgment."[38]

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.[37][36] 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."[39] 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".[40] Glenn has described the Senate Ethics Committee investigation as the low point of his life.[8]

Reactions

Not everyone was satisfied with the Senate Ethics Committee conclusions. Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, which had initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of the senators far too lenient, and said, "The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world."[41] Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, called it a "whitewash".[41] Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labelling the Senate Ethics Committee "shameless" for having "let four of the infamous Keating Five off with a wrist tap."[42] Margaret Carlson of Time suspected the committee had timed its first report to coincide with the run-up to the Gulf War, minimizing its news impact.[41] One of the San Francisco bank regulators felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating's business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest.[43]

Aftermath

Keating and Lincoln Savings became convenient symbols for arguments about what had gone wrong in America's financial system and society,[44] and were featured in popular culture references.[45][44] The senators did not escape infamy either.[43] By spring 1992, a deck of playing cards was being marketed, called "The Savings and Loan Scandal", that featured on their face Charles Keating holding up his hand, with images of the five senators portrayed as puppets on his fingers.[44][7]

Polls showed that most Americans believed the actions of the Keating Five were typical of Congress as a whole.[31] Political historian Lewis Gould would later echo this sentiment, as well as Cranston attorney Dershowitz's argument, writing that, “the real problem for the 'Keating Three' who were most involved was that they had been caught.”[5]

Cranston left office in January of 1993, and died in December of 2000. DeConcini and Riegle continued to serve in the Senate until their terms expired, but they did not seek re-election in 1994. DeConcini was appointed by President Bill Clinton in February 1995 to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.[46]

Glenn did choose to run for re-election in 1992, and it was anticipated that he would have some difficulty winning a fourth term in the Senate. However, Glenn handily defeated Lieutenant Governor R. Michael DeWine for one more term in the Senate before retiring in 1999.

After 1999, the only member of the Keating Five remaining in the U.S. Senate was John McCain, who had an easier time gaining re-election in 1992 than he anticipated;[47] he survived the political scandal in part by becoming friendly with the political press.[47] McCain subsequently ran for president in 2000 and became the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. During the 2000s, several retrospective accounts of the controversy reiterated the contention that McCain was included in the investigation primarily so that there would be at least one Republican target.[48][20][24][14] Glenn's inclusion in the investigation has been attributed to Republicans who were angered by the inclusion of McCain,[48] as well as committee members who thought that dropping Glenn (and McCain) would make it look bad for the remaining three Democratic Senators.[20]

The scandal was followed by a number of attempts to adopt campaign finance reform—spearheaded by U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK)—but most attempts died in committee. A weakened reform was passed in 1993. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. Bennett would later write that the Keating Five investigation did make a difference, as members of Congress were afterward far less likely to intercede with federal investigations on behalf of contributers.[49]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Financial Audit: Resolution Trust Corporation's 1995 and 1994 Financial Statements" (PDF), U.S. General Accounting Office (July 1996).
  2. ^ "Housing Finance in Developed Countries An International Comparison of Efficiency, United States" (PDF), Fannie Mae (1992).
  3. ^ Grossman, Mark. “Political corruption in America”, page 201 (2003).
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "The Lincoln Savings and Loan Investigation: Who Is Involved", The New York Times (1989-11-22).
  5. ^ a b c Gould, Lewis J. (2005). The Most Exclusive Club: A History of the Modern United States Senate. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02778-4. pp. 289–290.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Nathaniel C. Nash (1989-07-09). "Showdown Time for Danny Wall", The New York Times.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Nowicki, Dan and Muller, Bill (2007-03-01). "John McCain Report: The Keating Five", The Arizona Republic. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
  8. ^ a b c John Glenn archives, JOHN GLENN ~ POLITICAL CAREER, The Ohio State University Libraries. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
  9. ^ a b Binstein, Michael; Bowden, Charles (1993). Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Billions. Random House. ISBN 0-679-41699-4. p. 275.
  10. ^ a b Binstein and Bowden, Trust Me, pp. 278–279.
  11. ^ a b c d e Alexander, Paul (2002). Man of the People: The Life of John McCain. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-22829-X. pp. 108–111.
  12. ^ a b c Seidman, L. William (1993). Full Faith and Credit: The Great S & L Debacle and Other Washington Sagas. Random House. ISBN 0-8129-2134-8. pp. 233, 235.
  13. ^ a b Pizzo, Stephen; Mary Fricker, Paul Muolo (1989). Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-050230-7. pp. 291, 294–296.
  14. ^ a b c Karaagac, John. “John McCain: An Essay in Military and Political History”, pages 163 and 169 (Lexington Books 2000).
  15. ^ McCain, John; Salter, Mark (2002). Worth the Fighting For. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50542-3. pp. 185–186. Used because it has a thorough list of media references to what would become Keating Five.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurtz, Howard (1994). Media Circus: The Trouble with America's Newspapers (paperback), Times Books. ISBN 0-8129-6356-3. pp. 69–72.
  17. ^ a b c Nathaniel C. Nash (1989-11-30). "Collapse of Lincoln Savings Leaves Scars for Rich, Poor and the Faithful", The New York Times.
  18. ^ Nash, Nathaniel C. and Shenon, Philip (1989-11-09). "A Man of Influence: Political Cash and Regulation: A Special Report: In Savings Debacle, Many Fingers Point Here", The New York Times.
  19. ^ a b Robert North Roberts, Marion T. Doss, From Watergate to Whitewater: The Public Integrity War, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997, ISBN 0275955974. pp. 140–141.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Bennett, Robert S. (2008). In the Ring: The Trials of a Washington Lawyer. Random House. ISBN 0307394433. pp. 129, 133–134.
  21. ^ a b c d e Dewar, Helen (1991-02-08). "Panel Finds 'Credible Evidence' Cranston Violated Ethics Rules", The Washington Post.
  22. ^ a b c d e Dewar, Helen. “Cranston Accepts Reprimand; `Keating 5' Senator Angers Colleagues by Denying Misconduct”, Washington Post (1991-11-21).
  23. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1989-10-27). "Savings and Loan Executives Accused of Tapping Phones", The New York Times.
  24. ^ a b Mitchell, Andrea. “Talking back: To Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels”, pages 147-148 (Penguin 2006).
  25. ^ a b c d e f g Berke, Richard L. (1989-11-05). "Helping Constituents or Themselves?", The New York Times.
  26. ^ Carlson, Margaret (1989-11-27). "'A Legal Bank Robbery'", Time.
  27. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1991-01-05). "2 Senators Deny Impropriety In Dealings With Keating", The New York Times.
  28. ^ Sullum, Jacob (2005-03-11). "How John McCain Reformed", Reason.
  29. ^ Rasky, Susan (1989-12-22). "To Senator McCain, the Savings and Loan Affair Is Now a Personal Demon", The New York Times.
  30. ^ a b c McCain, Worth the Fighting For, pp. 194–195. Used to give committee composition.
  31. ^ a b c Robert Williams, Political Scandals in the USA, Edinburgh University Press, 1998, ISBN 1853311898. p. 103.
  32. ^ a b c d Berke, Richard L. (1990-09-29). "Ethics Committee is Urged to Clear 2 of 5 in Savings Inquiry", The New York Times.
  33. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1990-10-15). "G.O.P. Senators See Politics In Pace of Keating 5 Inquiry", The New York Times.
  34. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1991-08-05). "Cranston Censure Urged by Counsel", The New York Times.
  35. ^ a b c "Senator Pryor Returns to Ethics Committee", The New York Times (1991-08-22).
  36. ^ a b c d "The Online NewsHour: Washington Corruption Probe". PBS.org. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
  37. ^ a b Salinger, Lawrence. “Encyclopedia of white-collar & corporate crime: Encyclopedia of Corporate Crime”, page 478 (Sage Publications 2004).
  38. ^ Regens, James and Gaddie, Ronald.“The Economic Realities of Political Reform: Elections and the U.S. Senate”, page 6 (Cambridge University Press 1996).
  39. ^ "Excerpts of Statement By Senate Ethics Panel", The New York Times (1991-02-28). Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
  40. ^ McCain, Worth the Fighting For, p. 161. Used to support direct quotation.
  41. ^ a b c Margaret Carlson (1991-03-11). "Then There Was One", Time.
  42. ^ Jonathan Alter (1993-10-25). "The Buck Stops Where?", Newsweek.
  43. ^ a b Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn W. Thompson, David D. Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton. "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk", The New York Times, February 21, 2008. Retrieved February 21, 2008.
  44. ^ a b c Binstein and Bowden, Trust Me, pp. 388–389.
  45. ^ The Simpsons: Lisa's First Word - TV.com
  46. ^ William J. Clinton Foundation. "... about appointments to FHLMC". Press release.
  47. ^ a b Nowicki, Dan and Muller, Bill (2007-03-01). "John McCain Report: Overcoming scandal, moving on", The Arizona Republic. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
  48. ^ a b Tolchin, Martin. "Glass Houses: Congressional Ethics and the Politics of Venom", page 51 (2003).
  49. ^ Bennett, In the Ring, p. 148.

I've no love for haters. Ape Rape Jokes and calling Asians Gooks is a clear reason to not vote for McCain.

I suspect the Guru has a stripper's pole for Sarah Palin when this is all over.

posted by ZenPupDog @ 3:53 PM  

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