In your copy of the 1997 book Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis, please turn to page 108. Let us read together the second paragraph, which begins: “The costliest episode in the saga of Keating’s (CEO of Lincoln Savings & Loan) began in early 1997 … as Lincoln was being investigated … for questionable (my italics) underwriting of loans and investment irregularities,” an infamous meeting was called, attended by several senators, “all of whom had received hefty campaign contributions from Keating.” In the book, the first named of these was Sen. John McCain, who attended another such meeting soon after, where the federal regulator was removed. If your memory has slipped a little, recall that Lincoln Savings and Loan failed completely with more than $3 million in losses, and Keating went on to serve two years in prison.
I don’t want this man McCain as my president, nor does he belong in Washington bailing out Wall Street.
— Allen Thomas
Asheville
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