The evolution of this financial crisis is interesting. It started with a lot of handwringing about subprime mortgages. Then suddenly, the phrase seemed to be banned. Now we are hearing nonstop on Obama-TV that McCain sponsored "deregulation" (scary huh?) in 1993 and that he was part of the Keating 5 scandal. Oh yeah, that a guy who advises his campaign was also a lobbyist with FNM as a client. What is it exactly they are trying to hide, other than the fact that FNM/FRE were democrat slush funds, even if they were forced grudgingly to spread a little around on the republican side of the aisle too? ********************************** They Gave Your Mortgage to a Less Qualified Minority by Ann Coulter On MSNBC this week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter tried to connect John McCain to the current financial disaster, saying: "If you remember the Keating Five scandal that (McCain) was a part of. ... He's really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country." McCain was "in the middle of" the Keating Five case in the sense that he was "exonerated." The lawyer for the Senate Ethics Committee wanted McCain removed from the investigation altogether, but, as The New York Times reported: "Sen. McCain was the only Republican embroiled in the affair, and Democrats on the panel would not release him." So John McCain has been held hostage by both the Viet Cong and the Democrats. Alter couldn't be expected to know that: As usual, he was lifting material directly from Kausfiles. What is unusual was that he was stealing a random thought sent in by Kausfiles' mother, who, the day before, had e-mailed: "It's time to bring up the Keating Five. Let McCain explain that scandal away." The Senate Ethics Committee lawyer who investigated McCain already had explained that scandal away -- repeatedly. It was celebrated lawyer Robert Bennett, most famous for defending a certain horny hick president a few years ago. In February this year, on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," Bennett said, for the eight billionth time: "First, I should tell your listeners I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on (McCain's) side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five. ... And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him." It's bad enough for Alter to be constantly ripping off Kausfiles. Now he's so devoid of his own ideas, he's ripping off the idle musings of Kausfiles' mother. Even if McCain had been implicated in the Keating Five scandal -- and he wasn't -- that would still have absolutely nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis currently roiling the financial markets. This crisis was caused by political correctness being forced on the mortgage lending industry in the Clinton era. Before the Democrats' affirmative action lending policies became an embarrassment, the Los Angeles Times reported that, starting in 1992, a majority-Democratic Congress "mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains." Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001. Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named "Caylee." Threatening lawsuits, Clinton's Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn't a joke -- it's a fact. When Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative branches, political correctness was given a veto over sound business practices. In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration's affirmative action lending policies as one of the "hidden success stories" of the Clinton administration, saying that "black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded." Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn't get out of their loans by selling their houses. A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it's gone off. In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government's "implicit subsidy" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system. Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no "concern about housing." How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can't repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "under heavy assault by the Republicans," but these entities still had "important political allies" in the Democrats. Now, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, middle-class taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats' two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients. Political correctness had already ruined education, sports, science and entertainment. But it took a Democratic president with a Democratic congress for political correctness to wreck the financial industry.
Despite her legion of detractors Coulter is an excellent researcher. I really don't know how anyone can assail the accuracy of this article.
I know a guy who went to jail for the same thing that McCain and the others did, i.e., inhibiting a federal audit. Just wasted my time. I should know better.
McCain partying with Charles Keating. http://static1.firedoglake.com/28/files//2008/09/mccainkeating.pdf
I'll tell you who - Banks, Investment Banks, Mortgage Brokers, Realtors, Builders (I am one, so I know how the rat system works), Appraisers, AND Borrowers. They were all in on the racket. They all share the blame. They all made money while the ponzi scheme was going on, and I have ZERO mercy for anyone that played along, because they lived by the fraud and should now die by the fraud. This was the biggest bubble in history - dwarfing the dot.com bubble. Commercial real estate is the next shoe to drop.
While McCain should have been embarrased to even know Charles Keating (let alone take money from him), McCain didn't do anything wrong. But this quote: sounds untrue. Isn't it in both parties bylaws that only power-crazed crooks (preferrably lawyers) can win the nomination?
http://thestrangedeathofliberalamer...t-two-of-an-indepth-investigative-report.html A interesting read of how we got here. Lot's of finger prints all over this, both Dem and Repub.
started to read this but when I saw the bi-line...sorry I have NO...ZERO...NADA ...respect for Ann Coulter. lets start with a bald face lie she states that McCain was the only republican...John Glenn and Donald Riegle were also republicans caught up in the investigation.....humm that would be 3 out of 5 Republicans (granted Riegle started out as a Democrat then changed parties) edit edit...I take it back Glenn WAS a dem (and you certainly can't trust those Astronauts)...Riegle WAS a Rep then changed to Dem
The democrat counsel who investigated the Five said McCain did nothing wrong. What part of that don't you understand? They kept him in the investigation because otherwise it was all democrats and that looked bad.
No of course you wouldn't want to read anything factual. You think a better way to learn about candidates is to look at their children's eyes or listen to their wife.