Today the Obama campaign launches a thirteen-minute viral documentary targeting John McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five Scandal, which may be seen at KeatingEconomics.com. The trailer has already been released and includes footage from the 1990 Senate Ethics Committee Hearings on the Keating Five Incident in which Senator Howell Helfin says to McCain, “Many of our fellow citizens apparently believe that your services were bought by Charles Keating.”

The Keating Five Scandal involved the meeting of five senators, including McCain, with Lincoln Savings and Loan real estate developer Charles Keating, who was found guilty of 73 counts of wire and bankruptcy fraud but let out of prison years earlier than his sentence due to a technicality. It was found that the five senators, aka the Keating Five, had accepted campaign contributions from Keating; in 1987 alone McCain received $112,000 from Keating and his cronies. Keating also paid for McCain to take at least nine trips in 1982, trips which McCain did not report though required to by the Senate.

According to Slate:

At Keating's behest, four senators--McCain and Democrats Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, and John Glenn of Ohio--met with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, on April 2. Those four senators and Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich., attended a second meeting at Keating's behest on April 9 with bank regulators in San Francisco.

 

Regulators did not seize Lincoln Savings and Loan until two years later. The Lincoln bailout cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, making it the biggest of the S&L scandals. In addition, 17,000 Lincoln investors lost $190 million.

 

In November 1990, the Senate Ethics Committee launched an investigation into the meetings between the senators and the regulators. McCain, Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, and Riegle became known as the Keating Five.

Some might say that Obama is capitalizing on the blooming economic panic, yet McCain was indeed involved in this major scandal and the ethically suspicious relationship with Keating would be scrutinized no matter the timing of the election. Furthermore, McCain can expect no different after attempting to portray Barack Obama as sympathetic to terrorists.

So what is Keating Economics? Keating Economics is the system in which legislators allow for deregulation, protect the good ol' boys, and bail out their rich cronies when they collapse despite the tax burden placed on citizens.

They say all’s fair in love and war, and this election sure is turning into a lovefest.