McCain Lawyers Push Back on Obama Keating Five Charges

[Nambe]

Source: The Washington Post

The McCain campaign pushed back hard against the new Obama attack over the Keating Five, arguing that the Arizona senator was treated unfairly by the Senate ethics investigation and asserting that John McCain had been much more open about his relationship with disgraced thrift executive Charles Keating than Obama has been about his connection with one-time radical William Ayers.

In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, John Dowd, the Washington lawyer who represented McCain during the Senate investigation, called the inquiry a "classic political smear job" by the Democrats running the Senate at the time, saying that they only included McCain to make sure that a Republican was among the targets. "John had not done anything wrong," Dowd said. ...

Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/mccain_lawyers_push_back_on_ob.html

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Too late dumbass, the fire is lit.

[Gillian]

1. Big blunder Johny, you are just giving it wheels.

The McCain campaign does everything right to lose an election.

[eleny]

2. Oh, really? Well, boys, it's called "tit for tat". Get used to it.

[billyoc]

3. "McCain, who spoke through his attorney..."

You know, like O.J. does. :rofl:

[Omaha Steve]

4. Obama Biden torpedo the SWIFT BOAT

K&R!

[Mark E. Smith]

5. Poor Johnny - He can dish it out, but take it?

Poor guy just folds like a cheap suitcase.

Anybody up for a pity party?

[Ian David]

6. Why don't Republickers ever take personal responsibility? n/t

[radfringe]

12. because they are republicans and believe

the markets will take care of it, and if that doesn't work - they can always be bailed out...

[young_at_heart]

7. They are trying to compare apples to oranges

Keating vs. Ayers-----a lot of nerve on their part!

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Since when has being a radical acitvist been a crime? Your country was

founded on radical activism, which kind of activity was subsequently praised by at least one of your Presidents, as a means of ousting unjust governments.

Us poor innocent Brits, plundered by your pirates and run out of your country by your boorish sharp-shooters, and you always cast us as the villains in your films!

Wait a minute... aren't those rascally insurgents of yours considered to have been "freedom-fighters these days?

[BR_Parkway]

19. Boston Tea Party was a "radical activist" action as well - seems like

they might still teach that one in schools like it was a good thing.

[Gregorian]

9. You can't handle the truth!

Sorry, go ahead and bring it on with your lawyers. The truth is the truth. You can't change that.

[customerserviceguy]

10. This wasn't a good move by the Obama campaign

First, there were four Democrats involved in the Keating scandal as well, so that particular piece of history is an "everybody does it" kind of story. Not the message Democratic candidates want out there.

Second, it gets Sen. Obama rolling around in the mud with McLame, he really needs to stay on high ground as much as possible. Yes, it's tough to stand there and take it when the other guy is flinging everything including the kitchen sink at you. But the central message of the Obama campaign is that hope springs from doing things a new way in politics. I'd even say that the biggest reason he won the nomination is because the voters didn't want to see the catfight that McCain and Hillary would have had.

If the Repukes and McLame can drag Obama and the Democrats down into the dirt, they win. This election is not about what happened with some old-news scandal, it's about how we get out of the mess we're in, militarily, financially, and politically.

[radfringe]

13. the difference is Obama discusses the issues - mccain just throws mud.

I think it's great - you want mud, have some mud, lots of it. Dems have been walking the "high ground" for too long, and have had the crap beaten out of them.

DIRT WORKS

[Winterblues]

15. In one way I agree with you except that this particular "old news scandal"

is very pertinent to what is going on today. It is in fact almost identical and McCain was indeed right in the middle of it. Democrats unlike Republicans are not concerned with whether it is a Democrat or Republican that broke laws but anyone that acts illegally will be held accountable. Republicans always justify the actions if it is done by a Republican while condemning in no uncertain terms if done by a Democrat. Another aspect is leadership. Republicans have been in almost total control for most of the period since the S&L debacle and yet allowed the very same thing to repeat.. McCain was part of that Republican Majority..

[awoke_in_2003]

23. where are those 4 dems today?

[MsRedacted]

25. I would normally agree, but Keating 5 has significance to today's fin issues. NT

[gratuitous]

11. A classic political smear job?

Uhm, when the facts are there, it's not really a "smear," Mr. Dowd; you're probably thinking more along the lines of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, fronted by one man who served briefly with John Kerry and bankrolled by a bunch of chickenhawks and jock-sniffers who'd wet themselves if they ever heard a live round fired in anger.

But maybe you could sue the Obama campaign. May I suggest you style your cause of action "definition of character"?

[raysr]

14. He's gonna blow

watch those veins in head and neck! Throw in the POW stuff and it'll be the end of him. Does anyone see Obama pulling the ad and apologizing?




Fuck you McCain

[Ramius]

16. Open? Who cares? Treated Unfairly? He got off like OJ. All Knew Mac was Guilty.

[Porschenut1066]

17. One problem history tells us that America almost never votes

on issues. They seem to vote on appearance. I hope to goodness this election proves this wrong!

[FirstLight]

18. HOW DARE they always use the term "fair" in these situations!

That is what immediately jumped off the page at me. FAIR? excuuuuse me
but you only use that word when you have brought the wrath of your own ignorance and abusive tactics down on your own head.
It's lies when Obama says it, and not fair when it is picked up by the media...

I see...

well, you will be gone soon enough old man
I am ready for Obama to landslide this thang!

[madmom]

20. that's what they all say

[McCamy Taylor]

21. Keating 5 was not isolated. He did the same thing for Paxson in 1999, got rebuked by the FCC.

Did it again in 2003 for Cablevision. Each time for money. See my most recent journal for how he keeps finding new ways to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate clients in exchange for interceding for them with federal agencies.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4176531

The man has not changed at all. He is a risk taker, a gambler, he will do anything for cold, hard cash. He think Americans are suckers and the federal budget is his personal casino to plunder.

[Gillian]

24. Yippee, more mud. Did´t McCain fall apart when Bush and Rove nailed him.

After he lost the primary, he started following Dimson around like a lost puppy. Before that he was very aggressive. I´ve always thought those Rovian attacks changed him.

[Maine-i-acs]

22. Hey, we're supposed to be talking about Ayers here!

Said John McCain through his attorneys.

Then the attorneys excused themselves to chase some kids off of John's lawn.

[and-justice-for-all]

26. William Ayers was aquited in 79 of all charges...

and now is a professor in Chicago. Were as Keating was found guilty and all associated are also guilty; you can not convince me that McFucked did not know what was happening.

[tabasco]

27. Lawyerin' up eh' Johhny Boy??

I thought you puke-licans didn't like lawyers.

I heard a bunch of pukes say that you don't need a lawyer if you're telling the trurh.

What's up with that, Johnny Boy??

[FreeStateDemocrat]

28. But lawyers never lie and misrepresent facts for their clients.

[DBoon]

29. and would they like some cheese with that whine?

Given the way you have maligned our candidates since the days of Lee Atwater, I think we are treating you kindly.

Not only have you not cared about "fair" you have not cared about "true" either. If you could not find a real scandal salacious enough, you would just make one up out of thin air. You did not care whose good reputation you destroyed. You did not care how you corrupted the democratic process.

Now go curl up and die. The world will be a better place without you

[OakCliffDem]

30. Kick