McCain's role in the Keating S&L scandal

Finally, expect the Democratic nominee to hit McCain on his strongest point; his honesty and integrity.  During the 2000 campaign, McCain was pretty much given a pass over his involvement in the “Keating 5” scandal, where McCain and four other senators helped a corrupt banker with regulators as that banker was looting his bank’s assets in one of the biggest S&L failures. 

Since Bush defeated McCain pretty easily in 2000, he never had to use this issue against McCain.  But we can expect McCain to get hit by the Democratic nominee as voters will be reminded of the fact that Charles Keating was convicted of racketeering and fraud in both state and federal court after his Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $3.4 billion. Though he was not convicted of anything, McCain intervened on behalf of Keating after Keating gave McCain at least $112,000 in contributions. In the mid-1980s, McCain made at least 9 trips on Keating's airplanes, and 3 of those were to Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain's wife and father-in-law also were the largest investors (at $350,000) in a Keating shopping center; the Phoenix New Times called it a "sweetheart deal."

In addition, it was also reported in 2000 that McCain still owned a piece of property in Arizona paid for by the infamous crook.