McCain And The Keating Five

Politico reports that Barack Obama is launching an online attack against John McCain at noon. The negative campaign is based on an almost 20 year old scandal known as the Keating Five. Whether or not you watch Obama's 13-minute "documentary" on the topic, I recommend reading this analysis of McCain's role by the Arizona Republic.

I learned three key things from that article:

1. McCain on the scandal: "I was judged eventually, after three years, of using, quote, poor judgment, and I agree with that assessment."
2. McCain was a freshman Senator who had been in office for three months when he was pressured by Arizona senior senator Dennis DeConcini (D) to get involved in the meetings.
3. The independent counsel was Robert Bennett (better known today for defending President Clinton in the Paula Jones case). Bennett recommended that both McCain and John Glenn be dropped from the Senate Ethics Committee investigation. It was, however, a Democratic Senate; the committee said no. McCain says it "the first time in history [that] the Ethics Committee overruled the recommendation of the independent counsel."