« Keating Five Member is Obama Surrogate | Main | McCain Speech Video: ''Obama 'Abetted' Wall Street Corruption, Was Silent on Fannie Mae and Freddie Freddie Mac When McCain Tried to Stop the Emerging Financial Crisis »

October 6, 2008

Obama Lies on His McCain Keating Attack

Topics: Political News and commentaries
Jake Tapper writes on the Obama team's absurd (my use of the word not Tapper's) smear attacks on McCain over the Keating 5 (emphasis - Greg Polliwitz):

"But if John McCain wants to have a character debate, then I am happy to have that debate, because Mr. McCain's record, despite him calling himself a maverick, actually shows that he is continually somebody who relies on lobbyists for big oil, big corporations, and that he makes decisions oftentimes based on what these lobbyists tell him to do.  And that, I think, is going to be a lot more relevant to the American people than what somebody -- who is tangentially related to me -- did when I was 8 years old."

"Joyner noted that the Obama campaign launched a Web site, keatingeconomics.com, going after McCain for his role in the S&L crisis of the late 1980s/early 1990s, and his role in the Keating Five scandal. "Of course, Charles Keating was a savings and loan guy out of Arizona," Joyner said. "Doesn't this put you in the position of going negative, taking away your message of running a different kind of campaign?"

"Said Obama: "One of the things we've done during this campaign: we don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last.  Because if the American people don't get the information that is relevant about these candidates and, instead, in the last four weeks, all they are hearing about are smears and Swift Boat tactics, that can have an impact on the election.  We have seen it before, and this election is too important to be sitting on the sidelines.  If Sen. McCain wants to focus on the issues, then that is what we focus on.  But if Sen. McCain wants to have a character debate, that is one that we're willing to have."

However, as Greg points out, Senator Obama's team registered the website for their attacks on Keating days before Governor Palin actually "punched" Senator Obama. As for the absurdity of the Obama smears of McCain over the Keating 5 (even Marc Ambinder calls the Obama camp's attacks "scuzzy"), Brian Simpson writes at TMR (from WaPo):

In an interview, Bennett said McCain should never have been dragged into the ethics case to begin with. He said that after his own lengthy investigation, he came to the conclusion that the case against McCain and former Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) "should have been dropped" because the evidence suggested that once McCain understood that the Justice Department was investigating Keating, he backed off any involvement. Dowd noted that McCain threw Keating,once a strong supporter, out of his office after Keating pressed him to intervene in his case.

Bennett said former Sen. Howell Hefflin (D-Ala.) insisted that the two be included in the formal public inquiry because otherwise there would have been a month of public hearings "with no Republicans in the dock." The other members of the Keating Five were Democrats.

"It was clear that McCain should not have been at the table nor should Glenn," Bennett said. "I felt it was unfair for McCain to be included as part of the Keating Five." Bennett stressed that he was not speaking as part of the campaign, though he noted he also represented McCain in his recent battles with the New York Times.

Clearly, borrowing from Ambinders use of the word, the Obama camp's attacks on McCain over Keating 5 are indeed "scuzzy," and I suggest very indicative of Obama's character, judgment, and history of shady associations and actions.

Posted by Hyscience at October 6, 2008 5:29 PM

Posted by: Jack Hall at October 6, 2008 7:28 PM

Posted by: Mike in Iraq at October 7, 2008 1:43 AM

Articles Related to Political News and commentaries:

• Obama Lies on His McCain Keating Attack - Oct 06, 2008