Cindy McCain and Charles Keating

Since the topic of the Keating 5 is no longer off-limits in the TM, and the Obama campaign has launched a counter-attack to deal with the absurd Ayers smears launched by the McCain campaign, perhaps it is time to revisit not just John McCain's culpability and lack of judgment back in the time of Keating, but also the intimate involvement of his wife.

Here are various mentions of Cindy:

Cindy McCain's Business Relationship With Charles Keating and Why She Must Disclose Her Finances  

From a December 1989 Newsday story:

   The Senate Ethics Committee will seek a detailed study of a real estate partnership involving developer Charles Keating Jr. and the wife of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), according to Senate sources.

   Involved is an investment by Cindy McCain and her father, James Hensley, in a $15-million Phoenix, Ariz., shopping center. The $359,000 investment, made through a Hensley company subsidiary in which Cindy McCain had 41 percent ownership and her father 51 percent, makes them the largest single investors in the project originally financed, built and managed by Keating. The investment by the senator's relatives was made in 1986 after Keating was already in a bitter feud with federal regulators alarmed over his operation of Lincoln Savings and Loan.

Ultimately, the Ethics Committee reprimanded McCain for his involvement in the Keating 5, calling it an exercise in "poor judgment."

But the fact that Cindy McCain's own money was tied-up in business dealings with Keating himself provides an even more compelling reason for her to now publicly reveal her finances and business relationships.

Given that Mrs. McCain 1) already tapped her personal money for the purposes of directly helping her husband's political career and 2) was the she was the largest investor in a real estate deal managed by Keating and for which records were sought by the Senate Ethics Committee which reprimanded her husband for his actions on behalf of her business partner, she loses the right to avoid disclosure under the premise that she's "not the candidate" and then calling her finances "a privacy issue."

DIGG it here

Seattle Times:

Revisiting McCain's Keating 5 history


During the investigation, McCain revealed he and his wife, Cindy, had not reimbursed Keating for thousands of dollars in flights on his company jet to the Bahamas. The McCains blamed each other, reported McCain biographer Robert Timberg, causing the first rift in their marriage.

Then, The Arizona Republic published a report about an investment that Cindy McCain had made with her father in a shopping-mall project owned by a Keating company.

When will we hear demands for Cindy to release her tax returns?

From the Center for Public Integrity:

In a postscript to the scandal, McCain finally contributed $112,000 -- the amount of money he'd gotten from Keating-related interests -- to the U.S. Treasury. (Keating would otherwise rank as his No. 1 career patron.) McCain's wife and father-in-law, however, held on to their stake in the Fountain Square Shopping Center. In fact, they held on to it long after American Continental Corporation went bankrupt. Cindy McCain, her father, and the remaining owners sold the mall two years ago for $15 million, reaping a profit that McCain has reported as between $100,000 and $1 million.

John McCain has resisted discussing his wife's involvement for years, often displaying his notorious temper. Here's a result from a random google search:
Betrayal, deceit, corruption and John McCain
, The US Veteran Dispatch

Reports from a variety of U.S. publications exposed McCain's true scandalous character

The Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989" . . . both in telephone conversations with reporters and on a live radio talk show, the Republican senator was far from calm. He was agitated. Angry. And the way he dealt with unpleasant questions was to bully the questioners . . . 'You're a liar,' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when an Arizona Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife, Cindy McCain, and Keating . . . 'That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,' McCain sneered later in the same conversation. 'You do understand English, don't you?' ". . . Not content with just bullying reporters, McCain tried belittling them: 'It's up to you to find that out, kids.' . . . McCain wasn't talking to liars. He wasn't talking to juveniles. The senator was talking to two reporters."

The Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989 -- "McCain, in a radio talk-show appearance last week condemned disclosures of his family's ties to Keating as 'irresponsible journalism.'"

The Phoenix Gazette, November 13, 1989 -- "Reporters also 'discovered' that the senator's wife and father-in-law invested $359,100.00 in one of Mr. Keating's projects in 1986 . . ."

The Arizona Republic, April 29, 1990 -- "McCain's involvement with Keating . . . when reporters called him with questions last year about previously unknown ties to Keating, an investment by wife Cindy McCain in a Keating shopping center and trips to Keating's Bahamas home, McCain went into a rage."

The gloves now have to come off - not just for John, but for Cindy as well. It was deemed fair game for McCain to attempt to involve Michelle Obama in his Rezco attacks, so why are we supposed to ignore Cindy?

(cross-posted to Daily Kos)



Display:


E tu Cindy? (2.00 / 1)


Anthropologists for human diversity; opposing McCain perversity
by NeciVelez on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 08:35:36 AM EST

Re: Cindy McCain and Charles Keating (2.00 / 1)

I think one of the problems with making much of the Keating scandal is that of the Keating Five, 4 were Democrats including some very prominent ones.  I realize they are not running for President but still, it seems like touchy territory to me.


by mady on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:04:47 AM EST

Re: Cindy McCain and Charles Keating (2.00 / 1)

I'm not sure that's the biggest problem. Obama's never been shy about running against his own party, the "old ways of Washington," etc. There's no getting around the point you mentioned: only one of them is running for president. (Though admittedly, I can see why reviving this scandal could conceivably affect voters in Congressional races, who probably don't need to be reminded of scandals when our party was last in the majority.)

I'm not really sure how much of an impact it will have in general. A 20-year-old story doesn't exactly excite the electorate or get the talking heads a-buzzin', despite the painful similarity of the S&L bailout with the current one. It'll take some pretty consistent hammering by Obama and surrogates; an ability to distill the issue into a punchy soundbite or two to resonate with voters; and a media that doesn't run from it or dismiss it as old news (like Brokaw did on MTP).


by Johnny Gentle Famous Crooner on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:55:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cindy McCain and Charles Keating (2.00 / 3)

Well, then this should be an example of MCCain
reaching across the isle...

Obama should have it as a  positive comercial,
sort of like the "My oponent is a good man, look
he actually has a bipartisan record"...

Wink, wink...


by lolo08 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:42:09 AM EST

oups, this was supposed ot be a responce to mady (none / 0)


by lolo08 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:43:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cindy McCain and Charles Keating (2.00 / 2)

Pretty clever, and a good defense if McCain tries to blame the Keating scandal on Democrats. I wouldn't expect Obama himself to say something that sarcastic, but I can totally hear an Ed Rendell or someone like that saying it.


by Johnny Gentle Famous Crooner on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:57:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]


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