McCain's lawyer: Keating investigation had ‘no merit’

The Hill ^ | 06 Oct 2008 | Sam Youngman

[BGHater]

Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s lawyer during the Keating Five scandal said Monday that the inquiry brought about by the Senate Ethics Committee had “no merit,” and he reiterated that the panel cleared the Arizona senator “completely.”

John Dowd, on a conference call with reporters arranged by the McCain campaign, said he is not surprised the case has resurfaced after 20 years, but he does not agree with Sen. McCain’s (Ariz.) acknowledgment of the appearance of impropriety, saying he thinks what McCain did “was very appropriate.”

The case, which involved McCain and four Democratic senators and their involvement with savings and loan scandal figure Charles Keating, has been pushed back into the news by the campaign of Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who has questioned McCain’s association with Keating.

On Monday, Obama's campaign launched a Web documentary questioning McCain’s involvement in the scandal.

Dowd said because of the size of Keating's bank in Arizona, McCain had a duty to be involved, but the Arizona senator "threw Keating out of his office" when the banker pushed hard for McCain's interference.

"Charlie Keating was an important constituent in Arizona that employed 2,000 people, and that's a constituency you pay attention to," Dowd said.

While the committee did clear McCain, it said that he showed poor judgment in his dealings with Keating, something Dowd disputed Monday.

"I understand why John feels the way he does," Dowd said. "This was an embarrassing and humiliating matter."

Dowd called the hearings a "political stunt," adding that Democratic leadership "colored the hearings."

[napscoordinator]

I would hope that McCain’s lawyer would say that. lol. Senator McCain, I know I am your lawyer, but I am going to throw you under the bus....ROTFLMAO.

[Puppage]

There was absolutely NO evidence against McCain and if Congress took him off the list, then it would have left nothing but democRATS, so they refused to remove his name.

[DoughtyOne]

In a heavily dominated Democrat Senate, McCain was lucky to have been the only Republican who participated in the Keating fiasco.

If there had been five Republicans involved, they wouldn't have gotten of as easy IMO.

This took place twenty years ago.  I view it qutie dimly.  Obama's relationships with Ayers is not ancient.  He still plays down the
significance of the Ayers relationship.  This is simply unacceptable.

Ayers was a known terrorist.  In his latest comments on his terrorist activites, he states he is not sorry he did it, and he won't promise he
will never do it again.

This is the type of trash Obama was comfortable with, and still is.  This is one more reason, he is not fit to be president.


Well folks, we've been at this for five days now and we're up to 27% of our goal as of 1:01am on the sixth of October.  This shouldn't really take more than a week to
conclude.  It's the fourth quarter of 2008, and it's time to take care of our obligation to Jim and John, ourselves, and to our fellow forum participants.  If you've already
contributed, you may want to consider sharpening your pencil.  Lets not keep the FReepathon in limbo.  Lets wrap this up.  Thanks for your support.  Click the pencil.

[pallis]

Attack back. Propose giving the busted bailout a boost with reduced capital gains taxes. Now it’s time to push the conservative alternatives to make the boondoggled government solution mean something, despite being bad policy.

Keep Sarah on point, doing the media’s job of exposing Obamadolatry and the corrupt goons behind it.

[Political Junkie Too]

They should also bring out Democrat lawyer Bob Bennett. He was the special council for Congress during the Keating 5 scandal, and even he cleared McCain of any wrongdoing, going so far as to say that they needed a Republican fall-guy to make the scandal bipartisan, and that was why McCain was included.

-PJ