Senator and U.S. presidential hopeful John McCain's ethics entanglement with a wealthy banker ultimately convicted of swindling investors was such a disturbing, formative experience in his political career that he compares the scandal in some ways to the five years he was tortured as a prisoner of war. "I faced in Vietnam, at times, very real threats to life and limb," McCain told The Associated Press. "But while my sense of honour was tested in prison, it was not questioned. During the Keating inquiry, it was, and I regretted that very much."
In his early days as a senator, McCain accepted contributions from Charles Keating Jr., flew to Keating's home in the Bahamas on company planes, and took up Keating's cause with U.S. financial regulators as they investigated him.
McCain and four Democratic senators were defendants in a congressional ethics investigation of their connections to Keating.
They were accused of trying to intimidate regulators on behalf of Keating, a real estate developer and owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan based in Irvine, Calif.
Keating and his associates raised $1.3 million combined for the campaigns of all five. McCain's campaigns received $112,000.
In 1991, the investigation determined that McCain "exercised poor judgment in intervening with the regulators," but added his actions "were not improper nor attended with gross negligence."
McCain has claimed the Keating scandal sensitized him even to the appearance of potential conflicts of interest. But recently, McCain has defended himself over another instance where he intervened with federal regulators on behalf of a prominent campaign contributor.
McCain wrote two letters in late 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Florida-based Paxson Communications, urging quick consideration of a proposal to buy a television station license in Pittsburgh.
He did not ask the FCC commissioners to approve the proposal, but at the time, one FCC commissioner's formal nomination was pending before McCain's Senate committee, and the FCC chairman complained that McCain's letters were improper.
McCain had received $20,000 from the company's executives and lobbyists.