McCain= One of the Keating Five=Helping Fat Cat Criminal Campaign Donors

[amborin]

at the expense of middle class Americans' hard earned savings:


The Associated Press

January 15, 1990, Monday, PM cycle

WASHINGTON TODAY: 11 Members of Congress Face Ethics Inquiries

BYLINE: By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: WASHINGTON


When Congress reconvenes later this month it must deal with the ethics problems of 11 members, including five senators who intervened with banking regulators and three House members accused of improper sexual behavior.
The list includes the No. 2-ranking Senate Democrat, the second-ranking House Republican, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, a onetime prisoner of war in Vietnam and America's best-known former astronaut.

The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into the conduct of seven senators, including the "Keating five" accused of improperly intervening with federal banking regulators on behalf of the owner of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan.

However, none of the four House cases is expected to equal the political drama of the investigation that led to Speaker Jim Wright's resignation last year.



"Most people like their congressman but have a negative opinion of the elective body" as a whole, said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.
He said that explains why incumbents generally win re-election despite investigations like the Lincoln case, which he said "stereotypes" members of Congress as "arrogant, selfish tools of special interests."

None of the senators under investigation is up for re-election this year, while House members face the voters every two years.

The "Keating five" senators are Republican John McCain of Arizona, a former POW in Vietnam; Majority Whip Alan Cranston of California; Banking Committee Chairman Donald W. Riegle Jr. of Michigan; Dennis DeConcini of Arizona and former astronaut John Glenn of Ohio.

They intervened with banking regulators on behalf of Charles H. Keating Jr., when he sought relief from an intense government examination of the California-based thrift.

Keating, his relatives and employees contributed $$1.3 million to the five senators' campaigns and political causes.

Others who face scrutiny are Sens. Alfonse M. D'Amato, R-N.Y. and David Durenberger, R-Minn.; House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia; Rep. Gus Savage, D-Ill.; Rep. Donald E. "Buz" Lukens, R-Ohio and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

The House and Senate ethics committees have launched formal investigations in all except Gingrich's case. The House panel must decide whether to pursue that inquiry despite an outside counsel's recommendation to drop the case.

In Durenberger's case, the committee is investigating whether he sought to evade limits on speaking fees he earned on a book promotion tour, and whether he improperly profited by charging the Senate for rent on a Minneapolis condominium he co-owned.

A complaint by a political opponent of D'Amato said the senator steered federal housing projects to his political supporters and improperly peddled his influence in other matters.

In the House, Rep. Bill Alexander, D-Ark., has complained that Gingrich violated House rules and federal campaign finance laws by getting 21 investors to put up $$5,000 each to promote a book he co-authored. Alexander also complained of alleged violations in a number of other areas.

The committee also is investigating:

-Frank, an admitted homosexual, who has acknowledged paying male prostitute Stephen Gobie $$80 for sex in 1985 and subsequently hiring him with personal funds to serve as a housekeeper and driver from July 1985 through August 1987.

Frank has denied Gobie's allegations that the lawmaker was aware that Gobie ran a prostitution ring from the congressman's apartment, and that Gobie and Frank engaged in sexual activity at the House gym.

-Savage, who is fighting allegations that he sexually assaulted a Peace Corps volunteer while on an official trip to Zaire last March. Savage has said, "They tried to destroy Dr. Martin Luther King with a lie. ... I'm in very good company."

<snip>

-Lukens, R-Ohio, convicted in May of contributing to the unruliness of a minor for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $$500 fine, but is appealing while remaining free on bond.

Some of the lawmakers under investigation have resorted to extraordinary measures to proclaim their innocence, including television commercials, newspaper advertisements, hiring experienced defense lawyers and building up defense war chests. Durenberger made an unusual apology "to the people of Minnesota."

[whistle]

1. Now that message needs to be in the Obama ads

[1corona4u]

2. So, is this the news the poster was talking about last night?

On the super-duper mystery thread?

[amborin]

3. McCain cost U.S. taxpayers $2.5 billion in 1980s dollars

United Press International

January 2, 1990, Tuesday, BC cycle

Commentary on Today's News: Scandal deeply wounds Glenn, McCain

BYLINE: By LEON DANIEL UPI Senior Editor


Two of the senators who comprise the ''Keating Five'' are military heroes likely to be acquitted in the court of public opinion for a debacle that may cost taxpayers $2.5 billion.
But the scandal already has inflicted deep personal wounds on John Glenn, D-Ohio, and John McCain, R-Ariz.



''From the standpoint of my honor and integrity,'' said the former Marine astronaut and first American to orbit Earth, ''this is absolutely the worst thing I've ever been through.''
McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, observed that ''even the Vietnamese didn't question my integrity.''

Glenn, McCain and three other senators are accused of peddling their influence with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to Charles Keating, chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.

The five, including Sens. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., and Donald Riegle, D-Mich., are under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee.

For allegedly subverting the regulatory process, they could be censured by the Senate and face action by law-enforcement authorities.

The senators, who received a total of $1.3 million in political contributions from Keating, met with thrift-institution regulators in 1987 on behalf of Lincoln, which was seeking relief from restrictions on its investments.

Glenn, who got $234,000, staunchly defends his honor. He has maintained his favorable ratings in Ohio polls. Now 68, he probably can win another Senate term in 1992 if he wants one.

<b>McCain became friends with Keating, also a former fighter-plane pilot, after they met at a Navy League dinner in Phoenix in 1981. He received $112,000 in Keating contributions for his 1986 campaign.

Perhaps more damaging was the disclosure of a $359,000 investment McCain's wife and father-in-law made in a Keating shopping mall. The McCains vacationed for three years at the Keatings' resort home in the Bahamas. The senator belatedly reimbursed his friend $13,000 for trips he or his family took on the Keating corporate jet. </b>

Although recent Arizona polls disclosed a growing negative view of McCain, he is expected to win re-election in 1992. But McCain, under serious consideration as a running mate for George Bush in 1988, no longer is regarded as a rising national star in his party.

Glenn flew 59 combat missions in World War II and another 90 in the Korean War.

McCain, whose father commanded U.S. forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War, was dubbed sarcastically by captors who could not break his spirit as the Navy's ''crown prince.''

Glenn and McCain, who now say they had reservations about meeting with the thrift regulators, tenaciously deny and wrongdoing in the grim fight for their reputations. But, at the very least, they were guilty of boneheaded lapses in judgment.

As politicians, Glenn and McCain never flaunted their war-hero celebrity, which in their current travail has not spared them from being spoofed and mocked on late-night television.

Their Senate colleagues and the court of public opinion should deal less harshly with such honorable and decent men.

[amborin]

4. double post, sorry

[StClone]

5. Are you sure? Maybe he's changed!

Keating Five...ah is that important? Pretty soon you'll drag out how the Republicans were in charge when the S&L thingy when down on taxpayers for billions. :sarcasm: