Senate Ethics Committee formally reprimanded McCain

American tax-payers are bailing out bankers while being asked to vote for a presidential candidate who was formally reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee for his associations with a previous banking scandal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five).

After the savings and loan disaster of the late '80s and early '90s John McCain was accused of improperly aiding one of his major political funders, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association took advantage of deregulation in the 1980s to make risky investments with its depositors' money (google it).

With investigators closing in McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating and championed legislation to delay regulation of the industry - that allowed Keating to continue his fraud at massive cost to taxpayers: 20,000 Americans lost their savings but the cost to taxpayers rose further from around $3 billion to, eventually, more than $120 billion.

The Senate Ethics Committee investigated and formally reprimanded McCain for his role in the scandal.

Fast-forward to today's credit crisis where lack of regulation and cozy relationships between the financial industry and Congress has allowed banks to make risky loans and profit by bending the rules.

Is it any wonder that McCain's campaign, in the last few days, have suggested they turn-the-page on the economic question?

Watch the documentary (13 mins) here:
paid for by the Obama Campaign

3 things you may not know about McCain here: