Today, this is what John McCain thinks: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Now, to be fair (and we always have to go overboard to be fair to McCain) when John McCain was talking about "our economy," he might have been referring to the McCain family's economy, which, thanks to Cindy, is quite strong. The McCain family economy is so strong that John McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns.
And, lest we forget, McCain has been through bank failures before. He played a key role in the failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan back in the late 80s. McCain helped out his "constituent" Charles Keating:
[McCain] had adopted the blanket defense that Keating was a constituent and that he had every right to ask his senators for help. In attending the meetings, McCain said, he simply wanted to make sure that Keating was treated like any other constituent.The McCain family doesn't live like the rest of us.
Keating was no ordinary constituent to McCain.
On Oct. 8, 1989, The Arizona Republic revealed that McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.
The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.
McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Total cost: $13,433.
When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself.
"You're a liar," McCain said when a Republic reporter asked him about the business relationship between his wife and Keating.
"That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot," McCain said later in the same conversation. "You do understand English, don't you?"
He also belittled reporters when they asked about his wife's ties to Keating.
"It's up to you to find that out, kids."
The paper ran the story.
Also, same article reports "Lincoln was the most expensive failure in the national S&L scandal. Taxpayers lost more than $2 billion on the bailout."
