Guilt By Guiltiness
Politico’s Ben Smith observes that, contrary to what I wrote below, one really shouldn’t put McCain’s ties to Charles Keating into the guilt by association box:
The story of McCain and Keating is not guilt by association; it’s guilt by guilt. McCain’s problem isn’t that he knew Keating in activities unconnected to his wrongdoing; it’s that Keating, in the course of his wrongdoing, gave McCain money and tried, with a bit of success, to use him to influence regulators.
And of course more recently when Freddie Mac was worried about regulatory scrutiny from McCain, they hired a lobbyist close to McCain, the lobbyist in question got McCain to drop the issue, and now that lobbyist is chief of staff in McCain’s Senate office. Again, it’s guilt by guilt.
24 Responses to “Guilt By Guiltiness”
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October 6th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I am more frightened by McCain’s consistent support for the same deregulatory fervor that lost us an entire sector of our banking system in the 1980s right up until, what, 2 weeks ago.
In other words, what McCain seems to have learned from the S&L disaster is that the part about losing hundreds of billions of dollars and our whole Savings & Loan industry is okay, and in fact worthy of repeating (as we just have), just don’t get caught up in individual corruption charges stemming from it.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Why this didn’t occur to you without prompting is probably due to your age. As someone who was a lot older when this scandal was front page news, the Keating 5 were emblematic of corrosive Washington politics, and John McCain was far closer to Keating personally and financially (through his wife) than any of the others. It should have ended his career. It certainly destroyed the lives of many other, and completely innocent, people.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:24 am
1) I don’t understand Sarah Palin’s attack on Obama. Weatherman Williams Ayers was attacking the Lyndon Johnson Democratic administration.
By Republican standards, he wasn’t a “domestic terrorist” –he was what Ronald Reagan called a “freedom fighter”.
2) Besides, a Life Member of the NRA like Sarah probably shouldn’t encourage careless use of the slur “domestic terrorist”.
Some reporter should get her to expound on the purpose of the Second Amendment some time.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:29 am
But McCain didn’t drop his attempts to regulate Fannie and Freddie.
But, again, let’s have the conversation: Is McCain a dirty pol–the sort of politician who buys real estate with convicted felons, or who sells his house to a campaign donor? Is McCain the sort of politician who becomes rich while in public office, like the Obamas and Bidens? Did McCain hang around with people who hate the US? It’s true that Obama didn’t associate with Ayers et al when they were setting bombs. But apparently that’s strictly a function of his age–they’d stopped the bomb throwing when he was a kid, and they came out of hiding back when he was using drugs.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:30 am
1) The hilarious thing about the Keating 5 scandal was how the Commission investigating the scandal dropped the ethics hot potato.
The announcement that they were letting McCain off the hook would ordinarily have infuriated the voters. Even though the investigation had been slow-rolled for 2 years, people were still furious over the $160 BILLION bailout needed to fix the mess.
2) So their verdict was released on the same day that George H Bush launched the attack against Saddam Hussein in Kuwait.
Known as “burying it in the news cycle”.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:33 am
The funny thing about McCain is that you don’t really know where to start with the guilt by association game. I mean, what about Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed? Both men were implicated in Abramoff’s scheming by John McCain’s own committee and now are strong supporters of McCain’s campaign. Hell, McCain even had to kowtow to Norquist in the primary to get the nomination with the silly Fair Tax pledge; now it’s one of the only clear parts of his proposed policy.
Obama did have one ad that aired briefly in ATL that knocked McCain for not calling Ralph Reed to the stand, but hasn’t taken the attack outside of Reed’s neck of the woods (the AJC was the only paper to really focus on Reed’s role).
October 6th, 2008 at 9:35 am
@Thomas – that’s fucking rich. McCain’s written more books than Obama but he just sucks at writing them (well, I guess Salter sucks, but whatever). And go rent Wedding Crashers before you decide which candidate is after the easy buck in this race. What a joke.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Zach: the Ralph Reed ad vanished really quickly because Reed had been heading up a John McCain fundraiser, but as the Obama attack came, Reed bowed out and Ralph Reed has not been playing any public electoral role recently AFAIK. With an invisible and largely forgotten Ralph Reed, it’s harder to make an issue, that is, given that Democrats aren’t as able to make useful monsters out of just anyone.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Re Thomas’s question “Did McCain hang around with people who hate the US? ”
———–
Oh, I don’t know. He’s been a Republican Senator for 26 years. After screwing the people of this country out of $160 Billion doing favors for Keating, he then let this latest mess develop –which will cost US citizens $2 Trillion.
He helped send 4500+ soldiers to their deaths –and crippled tens of thousands for life — in order to deliver some oil wells to Big Oil.
All told , his little gang has dumped about $6.5 TRILLION in debt onto the workers of this country in just the past few years — and has stolen $3 Trillion out of those workers Social Security retirement accounts.
Does McCain hate the People of the United States?
You tell me.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Actually, looking at the last 7.5 years of their attacks on the U.S. and its people, it should be pretty safe and mainstream now to state the truth, which is that no one hates America more than the Republican Party, and that includes Osama bin Laden, who never, ever could have dreamed to damage the country as much as George Bush Jr. and his cheering Republican hordes have.
I’m still trying to figure out why Republicans so deeply, disgustingly, morbidly, insanely hate America and everything that has made it — in particular the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Maybe it’s their congenital childlike, frightened authoritarianism, given their history of loving, loving, loving tyrants, terrorists, and mob bosses.
But after Obama finishes overthrowing the Reagan era neo-Confederate, America-hating Republican party, we probably should start an era of de-Republicanization, so that our country is Never Again so damaged by these deranged, hate-filled fiends.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:58 am
And let’s not foget McCain love for Iranian spy Ahmad Chalabi
October 6th, 2008 at 9:58 am
The local paper is treating the the Ayers/Keating Five as equivalent charges. Which is why Daddy’s blood pressure regularly causes steam to vent through his ears with a sound that causes nearby shift workers to leave for the day.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Re El Cid’s comment “Maybe it’s their congenital childlike, frightened authoritarianism ”
—————–
Nah. It’s their compulsive need to lick the butts of someone richer than them –in the forlorn hope that some rich man will be a surrogate daddy and save them from the consequences of their innate stupidity and incompetence.
Just look at the leader –George W Bush. All the advantages of a wealthy upbringing –Andover. Yale. Admitted to Harvard Business School inspite of shitty grades. Given the capital to start his own company.
Yet ,when he reached middle age, George was a drunk and a failed businessman on the verge of bankruptcy. EVERYTHING George has –his dignity, self-respect, wealth, power — was GIVEN to him by rich men. It would never occur to George to question their commands.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Or as the Brit standing next to me in the security line at the airport said last week, “The real terrorists were on the inside while you were all screaming about foreigners.”
Yes, he really said that. I told him it was too early in the morning for me to laugh.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:59 am
All this is just proving to me that many people really don’t recall much about the Keating scandal, which in turn suggests there really is a possibility of damage being done to McCain as all this gets reviewed.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:33 am
What’s more, Obama’s being “guilty by association” with Ayers would mean that Obama was IN the Weathermen but didn’t have anything to do with the bombing.
THAT’s guilt by association. Associating with somebody who is guilty of something is, as Dark Helmet would say, absolutely nothing.
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