Keating Five
Encyclopedia
The Keating Five were five United States Senators
accused of corruption
in 1989, igniting a major political scandal
as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis
of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators – Alan Cranston
(Democrat
of California
), Dennis DeConcini
(Democrat of Arizona
), John Glenn
(Democrat of Ohio
), John McCain
(Republican
of Arizona
), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr.
(Democrat of Michigan
) – were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr.
, Chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association
, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board
(FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.
Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of over $3 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee
determined in 1991 that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB's investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators Glenn and McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".
All five senators served out their terms
. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they both retained their seats. McCain would go on to run for President of the United States
twice, including being the Republican Party nominee in 2008
.
s (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession
. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, at the time the lowest rate since World War II.
The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan: Lincoln Savings and Loan Association
of Irvine, California
. Lincoln's chairman was Charles Keating
, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln. In the four years after Keating's American Continental Corporation
(ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln's assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion.
Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors' money. Keating and other savings and loan operators took advantage of this deregulation. Savings and loans established connections to many members of Congress, by supplying them with needed funds for campaigns through legal donations. Lincoln's particular investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.
Beginning in 1985, Edwin J. Gray, chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board
(FHLBB), feared that the savings industry's risky investment practices were exposing the government's insurance funds to huge losses. Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in "direct investments", and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments. Lincoln had become burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986, its investment practices were being investigated and audited by the FHLBB: in particular, whether it had violated these direct investment rules; Lincoln had directed Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures.
By the end of 1986, the FHLBB had found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million.
Keating had earlier taken several measures to oppose Gray and the FHLBB, including recruiting a study from then-private economist Alan Greenspan
saying that direct investments were not harmful, and getting President Ronald Reagan
to make a recess appointment of a Keating ally, Atlanta real estate developer Lee H. Henkel Jr., to an open seat on the FHLBB. But by March 1987, Henkel had resigned, upon news of his having large loans due to Lincoln. Meanwhile, the Senate had changed control from Republican to Democratic during the 1986 Congressional elections
, placing several Democratic senators in key positions, and starting in January 1987, Keating's staff was putting pressure on Cranston to remove Gray from any FHLBB discussion regarding Lincoln. The following month, Keating began large-scale contributions into Cranston's project to increase California voter registration. In February 1987, Keating met with Riegle and began contributing to Riegle's 1988 re-election campaign.
It appeared as though the government might seize Lincoln for being insolvent. The investigation was, however, taking a long time. Keating was asking that Lincoln be given a lenient judgment by the FHLBB, so that it could limit its high risk investments and get into the safe (at the time) home mortgage
business, thus allowing the business to survive. A letter from audit firm Arthur Young & Co. bolstered Keating's case that the government investigation was taking a long time. Keating now wanted the five senators to intervene with the FHLBB on his behalf.
By March 1987, Riegle was telling Gray that "Some senators out west are very concerned about the way the bank board is regulating Lincoln Savings," adding somewhat ominously, "I think you need to meet with the senators. You'll be getting a call." Keating and DeConcini were asking McCain to travel to San Francisco to meet with regulators regarding Lincoln Savings; McCain refused. DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous about interfering. Keating called McCain a "wimp" behind his back, and on March 24, Keating and McCain had a heated, contentious meeting.
On April 2, 1987, a meeting with chairman Gray of the FHLBB was held in DeConcini's Capitol office, with Senators Cranston, Glenn, and McCain also in attendance. The senators requested that no staff be present. DeConcini started the meeting with a mention of "our friend at Lincoln." Gray told the assembled senators that he did not know the particular details of the status of Lincoln Savings and Loan, and that the senators would have to go to the bank regulators in San Francisco that had oversight jurisdiction for the bank. Gray did offer to set up a meeting between those regulators and the senators.
On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini's office, to discuss the government's investigation of Lincoln. Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle. The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting. DeConcini began the meeting by saying, "We wanted to meet with you because we have determined that potential actions of yours could injure a constituent." McCain said, "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." Glenn said, "To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," while DeConcini said, "What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act? ... It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators." The regulators then revealed that Lincoln was under criminal investigation on a variety of serious charges, at which point McCain severed all relations with Keating.
The San Francisco regulators finished their report in May 1987 and recommended that Lincoln be seized by the government due to unsound lending practices. Gray, whose time as chair was about to expire, deferred action on the report, saying that his adversarial relationship with Keating would make any action he took seem vindictive, and that instead the incoming chair should take over the decision. Meanwhile Keating filed a lawsuit against the FHLBB, saying it had leaked confidential information about Lincoln. The new FHLBB chair was M. Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating and took no action on the report, saying its evidence was insufficient. In September 1987, the Lincoln investigation was removed from the San Francisco group and in May 1988, the FHLBB signed an agreement with Lincoln that included not going ahead with a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. In July 1988, a new audit of both Lincoln and American Continental began in Washington.
Cranston continued intervening on behalf of Keating after the April 1987 meetings, contacting both Wall and California state regulators and continuing to receive large amounts of new donations to the voter registration projects from Keating. DeConcini also continued on behalf of Keating, contacting Wall, California state regulators, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC) advocating approval of a sale of Lincoln as a December 1988 alternative to government seizure. But bank regulators refused to approve the sale of Lincoln. Glenn too continued to help Keating after the April 1987 revelation, by setting up a meeting with then-House Majority Leader Jim Wright
.
News of the April meetings between the senators and the FHLBB officials first appeared in National Thrift News in September 1987, but was only sporadically covered by the general media for the next year and a half. In early 1988, The Detroit News
ran a story on Riegle's participation, which Riegle responded to on Meet the Press
by denying an interceding on Lincoln's behalf, before returning Keating's campaign contributions back to him. In spring 1988, the Los Angeles Times
ran a short piece in their business section, but their political reporters did not follow up on it; two isolated, inside page mentions by The Washington Post
and The Wall Street Journal
similarly failed to develop further. As media critic Howard Kurtz
would later write, "the saga of Charles Keating took years to penetrate the national consciousness." The political fortunes of the senators involved did not suffer at this time. During the 1988 U.S. presidential election
, McCain was mentioned by the press as a vice-presidential running mate for Republican nominee George H. W. Bush
, while Glenn was one of the two vice-presidential finalists in Michael Dukakis
' selection process, losing out to Lloyd Bentsen
.
would later write that Lincoln push to get depositors to switch was "one of the most heartless and cruel frauds in modern memory."
American Continental went bankrupt in April 1989, and Lincoln was seized by the FHLBB on April 14, 1989. About 23,000 customers were left with worthless bonds. Many investors, often ones living in California retirement communities, lost their life savings, and felt emotional damage for having been duped on top of their financial devastation. The total bondholder loss came to between $250 million and $288 million. The federal government was eventually liable for $3.4 billion to cover Lincoln's losses when it seized the institution.
Keating was hit with a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action, filed against him by the regulators. In talking to reporters in April, Keating said, "One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."
In the wake of the Lincoln failure, former FHLBB chair Gray went public about all five of the senators' assistance to Keating in a May 21, 1989 front page story by John Dougherty in the Dayton Daily News
, saying that in the April 1987 meetings the senators had sought "to directly subvert the regulatory process" to benefit Keating. Press attention to the senators began to pick up, with a July 1989 Los Angeles Times
article about Cranston's role. With a couple of months, Arizona Republic and Washington Post reporters were investigating McCain's personal relationships with Keating.
On September 25, 1989, several Republicans from Ohio filed an ethics complaint against Glenn, charging that he had improperly intervened on Keating's behalf. The initial charges against the five Senators were made on October 13, 1989 by Common Cause
, a public interest group, who asked for the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the actions of the senators relative to Lincoln and the contributions received from Keating and whether they violated the rules of the Senate or federal election laws. But the most public attention came from the House Banking Committee, whose new chair Henry B. Gonzalez
held 50 hours of hearings into the Lincoln failure and associated events.
By November 1989, the estimated cost of the overall savings and loan crisis had reached $500 billion, and the media's formerly erratic coverage had turned around and become a feeding frenzy
. The Lincoln matter was getting large-scale press attention and the senators became commonly known as the "Keating Five". All the senators denied they had done anything improper in the matter, and said Keating's contributions made no difference to their actions. The senators' initial defense of their actions rested on Keating being one of their constituents; McCain said, "I have done this kind of thing many, many times," and said the Lincoln case was like "helping the little lady who didn't get her Social Security." Some of the five hired high-power Washington lawyers to represent them – including Charles Ruff for Glenn and John Dowd
for McCain – while others feared that to do so would give the appearance their political careers were in jeopardy.
The Justice Department and the FBI began by investigation possible criminal actions by Keating, but then expanded its inquiries to include the five senators. The FBI soon focused their attention on Cranston, because the largest sums of money from Keating came in to Cranston-involved voter-registration drives whose tax-exempt status might have been violated.
Cranston had received $39,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1986 Senate re-election campaign. Furthermore, Keating had donated some $850,000 to assorted groups founded by Cranston or controlled by him, and another $85,000 to the California Democratic Party
. Cranston considered Keating a constituent because Lincoln was based in California.
DeConcini had received about $48,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign. In September 1989, after the government sued Keating and American Continental for improper actions regarding contributions, DeConcini returned the money. DeConcini considered Keating a constituent because Keating lived in Arizona; they were also long-time friends.
Glenn had received $34,000 in direct contributions from Keating and his associates for his 1984 presidential nomination campaign, and a political action committee
tied to Glenn had received an additional $200,000. Glenn considered Keating a constituent because one of Keating's other business concerns was headquartered in Ohio.
McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981, and McCain was the only one of the five with close social and personal ties to Keating. Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley
had invested $359,100 in the Fountain Square Project, a Keating shopping center, in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet; three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. In 1989 Phoenix New Times
writer Tom Fitzpatrick opined that McCain was the "most reprehensible" of the five senators.
Riegle had received some $76,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign. Riegle later announced in April 1988 he was returning the money. Riegle's constituency connection to Keating was that Keating's Hotel Pontchartrain was located in Michigan.
(chair), David Pryor
, and Terry Sanford
, and three Republican senators, Warren Rudman
(vice chair), Trent Lott
, and Jesse Helms
. Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett
was appointed as special outside counsel to the committee, tasked with conducting the investigation.
Initially the committee investigated in private. On September 10, 1990, Bennett submitted a confidential report, which soon leaked, that recommended that the committee continue its investigation of Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle, but take no action against Glenn and McCain, as there was insufficient evidence to pursue the latter two. Bennett also recommended that public hearings be held.
Speculation that this would be the decision had already taken place, and both Glenn and McCain were frustrated that the long delay in resolving their cases was damaging their reputations. However, there were political implications, as the removal of the two would eliminate the only Republican from the case. The committee's work was further made difficult by there being no specific rule that governed the propriety of members intervening with federal regulators. By mid-October, several Republican senators, including former Ethics Committee chair Ted Stevens
, were taking the unusual step of publicly complaining about the Ethics Committee's inaction, saying that it was unfair to Glenn and McCain, that the whole lengthy process was unfair to all five, and that political motives might be behind the delays. Eventually, the committee could not agree on the Bennett recommendation regarding Glenn and McCain: vice chair Rudman agreed with Bennett, chair Heflin did not. On October 23, 1990, the committee decided to keep all five senators in the case, and scheduled public hearings to question them and other witnesses.
These hearings would take place from November 15 through January 16, 1991. They were held in the Hart Senate Office Building
's largest hearing room. They were broadcast live in their entirety by C-SPAN
, with CNN
and the network news programs showing segments of the testimonies. At the opening of the hearings, as The Washington Post
would later write, "the senators sat dourly alongside one another in a long row, a visual suggestive of co-defendants in a rogues' docket." Overall, McCain would later write, "The hearings were a public humiliation."
The committee reported on the other four senators in February 1991, but delayed its final report on Cranston until November 1991. During that period there was partisan-aligned disagreement within the committee over how to treat Cranston, and in August 1991 a special counsel's report was released by Helms. A delay was also caused when Pryor suffered a heart attack in April 1991, and was replaced on the committee by Jeff Bingaman
. Bingaman spent months learning the complex materials involved in the matter, only to resign in July due to a conflict of interest. Pryor was reassigned to the committee in August 1991, so as to not further delay its deliberations.
The various committee reports addressed each of the five senators.
He had received more than a million dollars from Keating, including $850,000 to the voter registration groups closely affiliated with him; he had done more arm-twisting than the other Senators on Keating's behalf; and was the only Senator officially rebuked by the Senate in this matter.
Cranston was given the harshest penalty of all five Senators.
In November 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to reprimand Cranston, instead of the more severe measure that was under consideration: censure
by the full Senate. Extenuating circumstances that helped to save Cranston from censure were the fact that he was suffering from cancer, and that he had decided to not seek reelection, according to chair Heflin. The Ethics Committee took the unusual step of delivering its reprimand to Cranston during a formal session of the full Senate, with almost all 100 Senators present.
Cranston was not accused of breaking any specific laws or rules, but of violating standards that Heflin said “do not permit official actions to be linked with fund-raising.” Although the Ethics Committee stated "No evidence was presented to the Committee that Senator Cranston ever agreed to help Mr. Keating in return for a contribution," the Committee officially found that Cranston’s conduct had been “improper and repugnant”, deserving of "the fullest, strongest and most severe sanction which the committee has the authority to impose." The sanction was in these words: "the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, on behalf of and in the name of the United States Senate, does hereby strongly and severely reprimand Sen. Alan Cranston.”
After the Senate reprimanded Cranston, he took to the Senate floor to deny key charges against him. In response, vice-chair Rudman charged that Cranston’s response to the reprimand was “arrogant, unrepentant and a smear on this institution," and that Cranston was wrong to imply that everyone does what Cranston had done. Alan Dershowitz
, serving as Senator Cranston's attorney, alleged that other Senators had merely been better at “covering their tracks.”
After the ruling, Riegle expressed contrition, saying "I certainly regret and accept responsibility [for actions that] did lend themselves to an appearance of a conflict of interest." DeConcini, however, said he would continue to be "aggressive" in representing his constituents in their affairs with federal regulators.
The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was also minimal, and he too was cleared of all charges against him.
McCain was criticized by the Committee for exercising "poor judgment" when he met with the federal regulators on Keating's behalf. The report also said that McCain's "actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him....Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate." On his Keating Five experience, McCain has said: "The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."
Regardless of the level of their involvement, both senators were greatly affected by it. McCain would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings was "the worst mistake of my life". Glenn has described the Senate Ethics Committee investigation as the low point of his life.
The Senate Ethics Committee did not pursue, for lack of jurisdiction, any possible ethics breaches in McCain's delayed reimbursements to Keating for trips at the latter's expense, because they occurred while McCain was in the House. The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said that it too lacked jurisdiction, because McCain was no longer in the House. It said it did not require that McCain amend his existing financial disclosure forms for his House years, on the grounds that McCain had now fully reimbursed Keating's company.
, president of Common Cause
, which had initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of the senators far too lenient, and said, "[The] action by the Senate Ethics Committee is a cop-out and a damning indictment of the committee," and "The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world." Joan Claybrook
, president of Public Citizen
, called it a "whitewash". Jonathan Alter
of Newsweek
said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labeling the Senate Ethics Committee "shameless" for having "let four of the infamous Keating Five off with a wrist tap." The New York Times
ran several editorials criticizing the Ethics Committee for having let the senators off lightly. Margaret Carlson
of Time
suspected the committee had timed its first report to coincide with the run-up to the Gulf War
, minimizing its news impact. One of the San Francisco bank regulators felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating's business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest.
Some of the Senate Ethics Committee members were concerned that letting the senators off lightly would harm their own reputations. Nevertheless, the existing Senate rules did not specifically proscribe the actions taken by DeConcini, Riegle, Glenn, and McCain. Vice-chair Rudman defended the committee's actions, saying: "Given the news media frenzy surrounding [the Keating Five], the easiest thing for the committee to do would have been to find them guilty of something and recommend sanctions. ... The politically difficult thing, the one requiring backbone, was what we did — to review all the evidence and reach a predictably unpopular conclusion based only on fact."
DeConcini later charged that McCain had leaked to the press sensitive information about the investigation that came from some of the closed proceedings of the Ethics Committee. McCain denied doing so under oath, although several press reports concluded that McCain had been one of the main leakers during that time. The GAO investigator later said, "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that McCain made those leaks." Vice chair Rudman stated in his 1996 autobiography that McCain and his staff were responsible for some of the leaks, but later repudiated the assertion.
McCain testified against Keating in a civil suit brought by Lincoln bondholders, and was seen as the plaintiffs' best witness. The other four senators refused to testify. Cranston left office in January 1993, and died in December 2000. DeConcini and Riegle continued to serve in the Senate until their terms expired, but they did not seek re-election in 1994. DeConcini was appointed by President Bill Clinton
in February 1995 to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
. Glenn did choose to run for re-election in 1992, trying to become the first senator ever to win a fourth term from Ohio. The Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor
R. Michael DeWine
, attacked Glenn on Keating Five as well as a number of other matters, in one of the dirtiest campaigns in the country that year and the toughest of Glenn's senatorial contests. Glenn prevailed, however, defeating DeWine by nine percentage points to gain one more term in the Senate before retiring and not running for re-election in 1998.
After 1999, the only member of the Keating Five remaining in the U.S. Senate was John McCain
, who had an easier time gaining re-election in 1992 than he anticipated. He survived the political scandal in part by becoming friendly with the political press. McCain subsequently ran for president in 2000
and became the Republican presidential nominee in 2008
. During the 2000s, several retrospective accounts of the controversy reiterated the contention that McCain was included in the investigation primarily so that there would be at least one Republican target. Glenn's inclusion in the investigation has been attributed to Republicans who were angered by the inclusion of McCain, as well as committee members who thought that dropping Glenn (and McCain) would make it look bad for the remaining three Democratic Senators.
The scandal was followed by a number of attempts to adopt campaign finance reform—spearheaded by U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK)—but most attempts died in committee. A weakened reform was passed in 1993. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act
in 2002. Bennett would later write that the Keating Five investigation did make a difference, as members of Congress were afterward far less likely to intercede with federal investigations on behalf of contributors.
In early October 2008, the Keating Five scandal, its possible parallel to the subprime mortgage crisis
and liquidity crisis of September 2008, and specifically the role in the scandal of Republican presidential nominee McCain, were briefly emphasized by the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama
, through a 13-minute "documentary" entitled Keating Economics. This introduction occurred after the McCain campaign began emphasizing the Obama–Ayers controversy. The Keating Five matter otherwise had little impact on McCain's eventually unsuccessful campaign.
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
accused of corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
in 1989, igniting a major political scandal
Political scandal
A political scandal is a kind of political corruption that is exposed and becomes a scandal, in which politicians or government officials are accused of engaging in various illegal, corrupt, or unethical practices...
as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis
Savings and Loan crisis
The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the failure of about 747 out of the 3,234 savings and loan associations in the United States...
of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators – Alan Cranston
Alan Cranston
Alan MacGregor Cranston was an American journalist and Democratic Senator from California.-Education:Cranston earned his high school diploma from the old Mountain View High School, where among other things, he was a track star...
(Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
), Dennis DeConcini
Dennis DeConcini
Dennis Webster DeConcini is a former Democratic U.S. Senator from Arizona. Son of former Arizona Supreme Court Judge Evo Anton DeConcini, he represented Arizona in the United States Senate from 1977 until 1995....
(Democrat of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
), John Glenn
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
(Democrat of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
), John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
(Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr.
Donald W. Riegle, Jr.
Donald Wayne Riegle Jr. is an American politician from Michigan, who served for five terms as a Representative and for three terms as a Senator.-Early life:...
(Democrat of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
) – were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr.
Charles Keating
Charles Humphrey Keating Jr. is an American athlete, lawyer, real estate developer, banker, and financier, most known for his role in the savings and loan scandal of the late 1980s....
, Chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association
The Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California was the financial institution at the heart of the Keating Five scandal during the 1980s Savings and Loan crisis....
, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board
Federal Home Loan Bank Board
The Federal Home Loan Bank Board was a board created by the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 that created and oversaw the Federal Home Loan Banks also created by the act. It was superseded by the Federal Housing Finance Board and the Office of Thrift Supervision in the Financial Institutions...
(FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.
Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of over $3 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee
United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics is a select committee of the United States Senate charged with dealing with matters related to senatorial ethics. It is also commonly referred to as the Senate Ethics Committee...
determined in 1991 that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB's investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators Glenn and McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".
All five senators served out their terms
Term of office
Term of office or term in office refers to the length of time a person serves in a particular office.-Prime Minister:In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister has no term limits...
. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they both retained their seats. McCain would go on to run for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
twice, including being the Republican Party nominee in 2008
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
.
Circumstances
The U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associationSavings and loan association
A savings and loan association , also known as a thrift, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans...
s (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, at the time the lowest rate since World War II.
The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan: Lincoln Savings and Loan Association
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association
The Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California was the financial institution at the heart of the Keating Five scandal during the 1980s Savings and Loan crisis....
of Irvine, California
Irvine, California
Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...
. Lincoln's chairman was Charles Keating
Charles Keating
Charles Humphrey Keating Jr. is an American athlete, lawyer, real estate developer, banker, and financier, most known for his role in the savings and loan scandal of the late 1980s....
, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln. In the four years after Keating's American Continental Corporation
American Continental Corporation
American Continental Corporation was a Phoenix, Arizona-based real estate company of the 1970s and 1980s.It was created in 1978 as a spin-off of American Financial Group, meant to do residential home construction...
(ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln's assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion.
Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors' money. Keating and other savings and loan operators took advantage of this deregulation. Savings and loans established connections to many members of Congress, by supplying them with needed funds for campaigns through legal donations. Lincoln's particular investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.
Corruption allegations
The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.Beginning in 1985, Edwin J. Gray, chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board
Federal Home Loan Bank Board
The Federal Home Loan Bank Board was a board created by the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 that created and oversaw the Federal Home Loan Banks also created by the act. It was superseded by the Federal Housing Finance Board and the Office of Thrift Supervision in the Financial Institutions...
(FHLBB), feared that the savings industry's risky investment practices were exposing the government's insurance funds to huge losses. Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in "direct investments", and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments. Lincoln had become burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986, its investment practices were being investigated and audited by the FHLBB: in particular, whether it had violated these direct investment rules; Lincoln had directed Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a United States government corporation created by the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. , the FDIC insures deposits at...
-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures.
By the end of 1986, the FHLBB had found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million.
Keating had earlier taken several measures to oppose Gray and the FHLBB, including recruiting a study from then-private economist Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...
saying that direct investments were not harmful, and getting President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
to make a recess appointment of a Keating ally, Atlanta real estate developer Lee H. Henkel Jr., to an open seat on the FHLBB. But by March 1987, Henkel had resigned, upon news of his having large loans due to Lincoln. Meanwhile, the Senate had changed control from Republican to Democratic during the 1986 Congressional elections
United States Senate elections, 1986
The U.S. Senate election, 1986 was an election for the United States Senate in the middle of Ronald Reagan's second presidential term. As in most midterm elections, the opposition Democratic Party held the usual advantage...
, placing several Democratic senators in key positions, and starting in January 1987, Keating's staff was putting pressure on Cranston to remove Gray from any FHLBB discussion regarding Lincoln. The following month, Keating began large-scale contributions into Cranston's project to increase California voter registration. In February 1987, Keating met with Riegle and began contributing to Riegle's 1988 re-election campaign.
It appeared as though the government might seize Lincoln for being insolvent. The investigation was, however, taking a long time. Keating was asking that Lincoln be given a lenient judgment by the FHLBB, so that it could limit its high risk investments and get into the safe (at the time) home mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
business, thus allowing the business to survive. A letter from audit firm Arthur Young & Co. bolstered Keating's case that the government investigation was taking a long time. Keating now wanted the five senators to intervene with the FHLBB on his behalf.
By March 1987, Riegle was telling Gray that "Some senators out west are very concerned about the way the bank board is regulating Lincoln Savings," adding somewhat ominously, "I think you need to meet with the senators. You'll be getting a call." Keating and DeConcini were asking McCain to travel to San Francisco to meet with regulators regarding Lincoln Savings; McCain refused. DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous about interfering. Keating called McCain a "wimp" behind his back, and on March 24, Keating and McCain had a heated, contentious meeting.
On April 2, 1987, a meeting with chairman Gray of the FHLBB was held in DeConcini's Capitol office, with Senators Cranston, Glenn, and McCain also in attendance. The senators requested that no staff be present. DeConcini started the meeting with a mention of "our friend at Lincoln." Gray told the assembled senators that he did not know the particular details of the status of Lincoln Savings and Loan, and that the senators would have to go to the bank regulators in San Francisco that had oversight jurisdiction for the bank. Gray did offer to set up a meeting between those regulators and the senators.
On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini's office, to discuss the government's investigation of Lincoln. Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle. The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting. DeConcini began the meeting by saying, "We wanted to meet with you because we have determined that potential actions of yours could injure a constituent." McCain said, "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." Glenn said, "To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," while DeConcini said, "What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act? ... It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators." The regulators then revealed that Lincoln was under criminal investigation on a variety of serious charges, at which point McCain severed all relations with Keating.
The San Francisco regulators finished their report in May 1987 and recommended that Lincoln be seized by the government due to unsound lending practices. Gray, whose time as chair was about to expire, deferred action on the report, saying that his adversarial relationship with Keating would make any action he took seem vindictive, and that instead the incoming chair should take over the decision. Meanwhile Keating filed a lawsuit against the FHLBB, saying it had leaked confidential information about Lincoln. The new FHLBB chair was M. Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating and took no action on the report, saying its evidence was insufficient. In September 1987, the Lincoln investigation was removed from the San Francisco group and in May 1988, the FHLBB signed an agreement with Lincoln that included not going ahead with a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. In July 1988, a new audit of both Lincoln and American Continental began in Washington.
Cranston continued intervening on behalf of Keating after the April 1987 meetings, contacting both Wall and California state regulators and continuing to receive large amounts of new donations to the voter registration projects from Keating. DeConcini also continued on behalf of Keating, contacting Wall, California state regulators, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a United States government corporation created by the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. , the FDIC insures deposits at...
(FDIC) advocating approval of a sale of Lincoln as a December 1988 alternative to government seizure. But bank regulators refused to approve the sale of Lincoln. Glenn too continued to help Keating after the April 1987 revelation, by setting up a meeting with then-House Majority Leader Jim Wright
Jim Wright
James Claude Wright, Jr. , usually known as Jim Wright, is a former Democratic U.S. Congressman from Texas who served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Speaker of the House from 1987 to 1989.-Early life:...
.
News of the April meetings between the senators and the FHLBB officials first appeared in National Thrift News in September 1987, but was only sporadically covered by the general media for the next year and a half. In early 1988, The Detroit News
The Detroit News
The Detroit News is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival Free Press's building. The News absorbed the Detroit Tribune on February 1, 1919, the Detroit Journal on July 21, 1922, and on November 7, 1960,...
ran a story on Riegle's participation, which Riegle responded to on Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
by denying an interceding on Lincoln's behalf, before returning Keating's campaign contributions back to him. In spring 1988, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
ran a short piece in their business section, but their political reporters did not follow up on it; two isolated, inside page mentions by The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
and The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
similarly failed to develop further. As media critic Howard Kurtz
Howard Kurtz
Howard "Howie" Alan Kurtz is an American journalist and author with a special focus on the media. He is host of CNN's Reliable Sources program, and Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast. He is the former media writer for The Washington Post. He has written five books about the media...
would later write, "the saga of Charles Keating took years to penetrate the national consciousness." The political fortunes of the senators involved did not suffer at this time. During the 1988 U.S. presidential election
United States presidential election, 1988
The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...
, McCain was mentioned by the press as a vice-presidential running mate for Republican nominee George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, while Glenn was one of the two vice-presidential finalists in Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
' selection process, losing out to Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...
.
Failure of Lincoln and investigation of the senators
Lincoln stayed in business; from mid-1987 to April 1989, its assets grew from $3.91 billion to $5.46 billion. During this time, the parent American Continental Corporation was desperate for cash inflow to make up for losses in real estate purchases and projects. Lincoln's branch managers and tellers convinced customers to replace their federally-insured certificates of deposit with higher-yielding bond certificates of American Continental; the customers later said they were never properly informed that the bonds were uninsured and very risky given the state of American Continental's finances. Indeed the regulators had already adjudged the bonds to have no solvent backing. FDIC chair L. William SeidmanL. William Seidman
Lewis William "Bill" Seidman was an American economist, financial commentator, and former head of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, best known for his role in helping work to correct the Savings and Loan Crisis in the American financial sector from 1988-1991 as head of the related...
would later write that Lincoln push to get depositors to switch was "one of the most heartless and cruel frauds in modern memory."
American Continental went bankrupt in April 1989, and Lincoln was seized by the FHLBB on April 14, 1989. About 23,000 customers were left with worthless bonds. Many investors, often ones living in California retirement communities, lost their life savings, and felt emotional damage for having been duped on top of their financial devastation. The total bondholder loss came to between $250 million and $288 million. The federal government was eventually liable for $3.4 billion to cover Lincoln's losses when it seized the institution.
Keating was hit with a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action, filed against him by the regulators. In talking to reporters in April, Keating said, "One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."
In the wake of the Lincoln failure, former FHLBB chair Gray went public about all five of the senators' assistance to Keating in a May 21, 1989 front page story by John Dougherty in the Dayton Daily News
Dayton Daily News
The Dayton Daily News is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio. It is owned by Cox Enterprises. In the 2010 Associated Press Society of Ohio newspaper competition that takes place every year, DaytonDailyNews.com was named "the best large-newspaper web site in Ohio".-History:On August 15,...
, saying that in the April 1987 meetings the senators had sought "to directly subvert the regulatory process" to benefit Keating. Press attention to the senators began to pick up, with a July 1989 Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
article about Cranston's role. With a couple of months, Arizona Republic and Washington Post reporters were investigating McCain's personal relationships with Keating.
On September 25, 1989, several Republicans from Ohio filed an ethics complaint against Glenn, charging that he had improperly intervened on Keating's behalf. The initial charges against the five Senators were made on October 13, 1989 by Common Cause
Common Cause
Common Cause is a self-described nonpartisan, nonprofit lobby and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican former cabinet secretary under Lyndon Johnson, as a "citizens' lobby" with a mission focused on making U.S. political institutions more open and...
, a public interest group, who asked for the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the actions of the senators relative to Lincoln and the contributions received from Keating and whether they violated the rules of the Senate or federal election laws. But the most public attention came from the House Banking Committee, whose new chair Henry B. Gonzalez
Henry B. Gonzalez
Henry Barbosa González was a Democratic politician from the state of Texas. He represented Texas's 20th congressional district from 1961 to 1999.-Background:...
held 50 hours of hearings into the Lincoln failure and associated events.
By November 1989, the estimated cost of the overall savings and loan crisis had reached $500 billion, and the media's formerly erratic coverage had turned around and become a feeding frenzy
Media feeding frenzy
A media feeding frenzy is intense media coverage of a story of great interest to the public.The O. J. Simpson trial in the U.S. was a well-noted example....
. The Lincoln matter was getting large-scale press attention and the senators became commonly known as the "Keating Five". All the senators denied they had done anything improper in the matter, and said Keating's contributions made no difference to their actions. The senators' initial defense of their actions rested on Keating being one of their constituents; McCain said, "I have done this kind of thing many, many times," and said the Lincoln case was like "helping the little lady who didn't get her Social Security." Some of the five hired high-power Washington lawyers to represent them – including Charles Ruff for Glenn and John Dowd
John M. Dowd
John M. Dowd , an American lawyer. He received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law.-Career:As of 2010 Dowd is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.-Pete Rose investigation:...
for McCain – while others feared that to do so would give the appearance their political careers were in jeopardy.
The Justice Department and the FBI began by investigation possible criminal actions by Keating, but then expanded its inquiries to include the five senators. The FBI soon focused their attention on Cranston, because the largest sums of money from Keating came in to Cranston-involved voter-registration drives whose tax-exempt status might have been violated.
Relationships of senators to Keating
Much of the press attention to the Keating Five focused on the relationships of each of the senators to Keating.Cranston had received $39,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1986 Senate re-election campaign. Furthermore, Keating had donated some $850,000 to assorted groups founded by Cranston or controlled by him, and another $85,000 to the California Democratic Party
California Democratic Party
The California Democratic Party is the state branch of the Democratic Party in the state of California, headquartered in Sacramento. It is chaired by veteran Democratic politician and former United States Representative John L. Burton, who succeeded Art Torres in April 2009. It is the majority...
. Cranston considered Keating a constituent because Lincoln was based in California.
DeConcini had received about $48,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign. In September 1989, after the government sued Keating and American Continental for improper actions regarding contributions, DeConcini returned the money. DeConcini considered Keating a constituent because Keating lived in Arizona; they were also long-time friends.
Glenn had received $34,000 in direct contributions from Keating and his associates for his 1984 presidential nomination campaign, and a political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
tied to Glenn had received an additional $200,000. Glenn considered Keating a constituent because one of Keating's other business concerns was headquartered in Ohio.
McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981, and McCain was the only one of the five with close social and personal ties to Keating. Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley
Jim Hensley
James Willis "Jim" Hensley was an American businessman in the beer industry.Hensley was born in Texas and moved to Arizona during his youth. He was a bombardier on B-17 Flying Fortresses during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross...
had invested $359,100 in the Fountain Square Project, a Keating shopping center, in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet; three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. In 1989 Phoenix New Times
Phoenix New Times
The Phoenix New Times is a free, weekly Phoenix, Arizona newspaper, put out every Thursday. It is the founding publication of the New Times Media , but The Village Voice is now the flagship publication of that company....
writer Tom Fitzpatrick opined that McCain was the "most reprehensible" of the five senators.
Riegle had received some $76,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign. Riegle later announced in April 1988 he was returning the money. Riegle's constituency connection to Keating was that Keating's Hotel Pontchartrain was located in Michigan.
History
The Senate Ethics Committee's investigation began on November 17, 1989. It focused on all five senators and lasted 22 months, with 9 months of active investigation and 7 weeks of hearings. The committee was composed of three Democratic senators, Howell HeflinHowell Heflin
Howell Thomas Heflin was a United States Senator from Tuscumbia, Alabama, and a member of the Democratic Party.-Biography:...
(chair), David Pryor
David Pryor
David Hampton Pryor is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. Pryor also served as 39th Governor of Arkansas from 1975 to 1979 and was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966...
, and Terry Sanford
Terry Sanford
James Terry Sanford was a United States politician and educator from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford was the 65th Governor of North Carolina , a two-time U.S. Presidential candidate in the 1970s and a U.S. Senator...
, and three Republican senators, Warren Rudman
Warren Rudman
Warren Bruce Rudman is an American attorney and Republican politician who served as United States Senator from New Hampshire between 1980 and 1993...
(vice chair), Trent Lott
Trent Lott
Chester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
, and Jesse Helms
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
. Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett
Robert S. Bennett
Robert S. Bennett is an American attorney best known for representing President Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. Bennett is also famous for representing Judith Miller in the Valerie Plame CIA leak grand jury investigation case, Caspar Weinberger, the U.S...
was appointed as special outside counsel to the committee, tasked with conducting the investigation.
Initially the committee investigated in private. On September 10, 1990, Bennett submitted a confidential report, which soon leaked, that recommended that the committee continue its investigation of Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle, but take no action against Glenn and McCain, as there was insufficient evidence to pursue the latter two. Bennett also recommended that public hearings be held.
Speculation that this would be the decision had already taken place, and both Glenn and McCain were frustrated that the long delay in resolving their cases was damaging their reputations. However, there were political implications, as the removal of the two would eliminate the only Republican from the case. The committee's work was further made difficult by there being no specific rule that governed the propriety of members intervening with federal regulators. By mid-October, several Republican senators, including former Ethics Committee chair Ted Stevens
Ted Stevens
Theodore Fulton "Ted" Stevens, Sr. was a United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009, and thus the longest-serving Republican senator in history...
, were taking the unusual step of publicly complaining about the Ethics Committee's inaction, saying that it was unfair to Glenn and McCain, that the whole lengthy process was unfair to all five, and that political motives might be behind the delays. Eventually, the committee could not agree on the Bennett recommendation regarding Glenn and McCain: vice chair Rudman agreed with Bennett, chair Heflin did not. On October 23, 1990, the committee decided to keep all five senators in the case, and scheduled public hearings to question them and other witnesses.
These hearings would take place from November 15 through January 16, 1991. They were held in the Hart Senate Office Building
Hart Senate Office Building
The Hart Senate Office Building, the third U.S. Senate office building, was built in the 1970s. First occupied in November 1982, the Hart Building is the largest of the Senate office buildings. It is named for Philip A. Hart, who served 18 years as a senator from Michigan.-Design and...
's largest hearing room. They were broadcast live in their entirety by C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
, with CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and the network news programs showing segments of the testimonies. At the opening of the hearings, as The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
would later write, "the senators sat dourly alongside one another in a long row, a visual suggestive of co-defendants in a rogues' docket." Overall, McCain would later write, "The hearings were a public humiliation."
The committee reported on the other four senators in February 1991, but delayed its final report on Cranston until November 1991. During that period there was partisan-aligned disagreement within the committee over how to treat Cranston, and in August 1991 a special counsel's report was released by Helms. A delay was also caused when Pryor suffered a heart attack in April 1991, and was replaced on the committee by Jeff Bingaman
Jeff Bingaman
Jesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman, Jr. , is the senior U.S. Senator from New Mexico and a member of the Democratic Party...
. Bingaman spent months learning the complex materials involved in the matter, only to resign in July due to a conflict of interest. Pryor was reassigned to the committee in August 1991, so as to not further delay its deliberations.
The various committee reports addressed each of the five senators.
Cranston: reprimanded
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Cranston had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB.He had received more than a million dollars from Keating, including $850,000 to the voter registration groups closely affiliated with him; he had done more arm-twisting than the other Senators on Keating's behalf; and was the only Senator officially rebuked by the Senate in this matter.
Cranston was given the harshest penalty of all five Senators.
In November 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to reprimand Cranston, instead of the more severe measure that was under consideration: censure
Censure
A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spiritual penalty imposed by a church, and a negative judgment pronounced on a theological proposition.-Politics:...
by the full Senate. Extenuating circumstances that helped to save Cranston from censure were the fact that he was suffering from cancer, and that he had decided to not seek reelection, according to chair Heflin. The Ethics Committee took the unusual step of delivering its reprimand to Cranston during a formal session of the full Senate, with almost all 100 Senators present.
Cranston was not accused of breaking any specific laws or rules, but of violating standards that Heflin said “do not permit official actions to be linked with fund-raising.” Although the Ethics Committee stated "No evidence was presented to the Committee that Senator Cranston ever agreed to help Mr. Keating in return for a contribution," the Committee officially found that Cranston’s conduct had been “improper and repugnant”, deserving of "the fullest, strongest and most severe sanction which the committee has the authority to impose." The sanction was in these words: "the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, on behalf of and in the name of the United States Senate, does hereby strongly and severely reprimand Sen. Alan Cranston.”
After the Senate reprimanded Cranston, he took to the Senate floor to deny key charges against him. In response, vice-chair Rudman charged that Cranston’s response to the reprimand was “arrogant, unrepentant and a smear on this institution," and that Cranston was wrong to imply that everyone does what Cranston had done. Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
, serving as Senator Cranston's attorney, alleged that other Senators had merely been better at “covering their tracks.”
Riegle and DeConcini: criticized for acting improperly
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Riegle and DeConcini had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB. Specifically, it said that even though neither of them violated any Senate rule, their conduct "gave the appearance of being improper." DeConcini was especially faulted for having taken the lead in the two meetings with the FHLBB.After the ruling, Riegle expressed contrition, saying "I certainly regret and accept responsibility [for actions that] did lend themselves to an appearance of a conflict of interest." DeConcini, however, said he would continue to be "aggressive" in representing his constituents in their affairs with federal regulators.
Glenn and McCain: cleared of impropriety but criticized for poor judgment
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of Glenn in the scheme was minimal, and the charges against him were dropped. He was only criticized by the Committee for "poor judgment."The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was also minimal, and he too was cleared of all charges against him.
McCain was criticized by the Committee for exercising "poor judgment" when he met with the federal regulators on Keating's behalf. The report also said that McCain's "actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him....Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate." On his Keating Five experience, McCain has said: "The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."
Regardless of the level of their involvement, both senators were greatly affected by it. McCain would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings was "the worst mistake of my life". Glenn has described the Senate Ethics Committee investigation as the low point of his life.
The Senate Ethics Committee did not pursue, for lack of jurisdiction, any possible ethics breaches in McCain's delayed reimbursements to Keating for trips at the latter's expense, because they occurred while McCain was in the House. The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said that it too lacked jurisdiction, because McCain was no longer in the House. It said it did not require that McCain amend his existing financial disclosure forms for his House years, on the grounds that McCain had now fully reimbursed Keating's company.
Reactions
Not everyone was satisfied with the Senate Ethics Committee conclusions. Fred WertheimerFred Wertheimer
Fredric Michael "Fred" Wertheimer is an American activist notable for his work on campaign finance reform. He served as president of Common Cause and is currently the President and CEO of Democracy 21 and Democracy 21 Education Fund, which he founded in 1997.He has received honorary Doctorates...
, president of Common Cause
Common Cause
Common Cause is a self-described nonpartisan, nonprofit lobby and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican former cabinet secretary under Lyndon Johnson, as a "citizens' lobby" with a mission focused on making U.S. political institutions more open and...
, which had initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of the senators far too lenient, and said, "[The] action by the Senate Ethics Committee is a cop-out and a damning indictment of the committee," and "The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world." Joan Claybrook
Joan Claybrook
Joan Claybrook is an American lawyer who served as President of Public Citizen from 1982 until she announced her resignation on December 9, 2008. Previously, she was head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981.Claybrook grew up in the...
, president of Public Citizen
Public Citizen
Public Citizen is a non-profit, consumer rights advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas. Public Citizen was founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, headed for 26 years by Joan Claybrook, and is now headed by Robert Weissman.-Lobbying Efforts:Public Citizen...
, called it a "whitewash". Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alter is an American journalist and author who was a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek magazine from 1983 until 2011. He is currently a lead columnist for Bloomberg View, a new commentary website. He is also a contributing correspondent to NBC News, where since 1996 he has appeared...
of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labeling the Senate Ethics Committee "shameless" for having "let four of the infamous Keating Five off with a wrist tap." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
ran several editorials criticizing the Ethics Committee for having let the senators off lightly. Margaret Carlson
Margaret Carlson
Margaret Carlson is an American journalist and a columnist for Bloomberg News.-Biography:She is best known for being the first female columnist at TIME magazine. Carlson joined Time in January 1988 from The New Republic, where she was managing editor; in 1994, she became the first female columnist...
of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
suspected the committee had timed its first report to coincide with the run-up to the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, minimizing its news impact. One of the San Francisco bank regulators felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating's business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest.
Some of the Senate Ethics Committee members were concerned that letting the senators off lightly would harm their own reputations. Nevertheless, the existing Senate rules did not specifically proscribe the actions taken by DeConcini, Riegle, Glenn, and McCain. Vice-chair Rudman defended the committee's actions, saying: "Given the news media frenzy surrounding [the Keating Five], the easiest thing for the committee to do would have been to find them guilty of something and recommend sanctions. ... The politically difficult thing, the one requiring backbone, was what we did — to review all the evidence and reach a predictably unpopular conclusion based only on fact."
Leaks
A number of press reports came out during the Ethics Committee's work that purported to reveal aspects of the investigations. Chair Heflin was upset by the leaks and two investigations into them were held, one by the General Accounting Office acting on behalf of the committee and one by the Senate's Temporary Special Independent Counsel. Neither report reached a conclusive finding or directly implicated anyone in the leaks. The special counsel report, released in 1992, ascribed partisanship as the motive for the leaks and said they were intended to hurt DeConcini, Riegle, and Cranston; it also gave an inference that McCain and his staff were responsible for key leaks.DeConcini later charged that McCain had leaked to the press sensitive information about the investigation that came from some of the closed proceedings of the Ethics Committee. McCain denied doing so under oath, although several press reports concluded that McCain had been one of the main leakers during that time. The GAO investigator later said, "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that McCain made those leaks." Vice chair Rudman stated in his 1996 autobiography that McCain and his staff were responsible for some of the leaks, but later repudiated the assertion.
Aftermath
Keating and Lincoln Savings became convenient symbols for arguments about what had gone wrong in America's financial system and society, and were featured in popular culture references. The senators did not escape infamy either. By spring 1992, a deck of playing cards was being marketed, called "The Savings and Loan Scandal", that featured on their face Charles Keating holding up his hand, with images of the five senators portrayed as puppets on his fingers. Polls showed that most Americans believed the actions of the Keating Five were typical of Congress as a whole. Political historian Lewis Gould would later echo this sentiment, as well as Cranston attorney Dershowitz's argument, writing that, “the real problem for the 'Keating Three' who were most involved was that they had been caught.”McCain testified against Keating in a civil suit brought by Lincoln bondholders, and was seen as the plaintiffs' best witness. The other four senators refused to testify. Cranston left office in January 1993, and died in December 2000. DeConcini and Riegle continued to serve in the Senate until their terms expired, but they did not seek re-election in 1994. DeConcini was appointed by President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
in February 1995 to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation , known as Freddie Mac , is a public government sponsored enterprise , headquartered in the Tyson's Corner CDP in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia....
. Glenn did choose to run for re-election in 1992, trying to become the first senator ever to win a fourth term from Ohio. The Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio
The position of lieutenant governor of Ohio was established in 1852. The lieutenant governor becomes governor if the governor resigns, dies in office or is removed by impeachment. Before 1852, the president of the Ohio State Senate would serve as acting governor if a vacancy in the governorship...
R. Michael DeWine
Mike DeWine
Richard Michael "Mike" DeWine is the Attorney General for the state of Ohio. He has held numerous offices on the state and federal level, including Ohio State Senator, four terms as a U.S. Congressman, Ohio Lt. Governor, and was a two-term U.S. Senator, serving from 1995 to 2007.- Biography :Born...
, attacked Glenn on Keating Five as well as a number of other matters, in one of the dirtiest campaigns in the country that year and the toughest of Glenn's senatorial contests. Glenn prevailed, however, defeating DeWine by nine percentage points to gain one more term in the Senate before retiring and not running for re-election in 1998.
After 1999, the only member of the Keating Five remaining in the U.S. Senate was John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, who had an easier time gaining re-election in 1992 than he anticipated. He survived the political scandal in part by becoming friendly with the political press. McCain subsequently ran for president in 2000
John McCain presidential campaign, 2000
John McCain, the United States Senator from Arizona, launched his first candidacy for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election....
and became the Republican presidential nominee in 2008
John McCain presidential campaign, 2008
John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, launched his second candidacy for the presidency of the United States in an unsuccessful bid to win the 2008 presidential election. His candidacy, in the works for a number of years, was informally announced on February 28, 2007 during a...
. During the 2000s, several retrospective accounts of the controversy reiterated the contention that McCain was included in the investigation primarily so that there would be at least one Republican target. Glenn's inclusion in the investigation has been attributed to Republicans who were angered by the inclusion of McCain, as well as committee members who thought that dropping Glenn (and McCain) would make it look bad for the remaining three Democratic Senators.
The scandal was followed by a number of attempts to adopt campaign finance reform—spearheaded by U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK)—but most attempts died in committee. A weakened reform was passed in 1993. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain...
in 2002. Bennett would later write that the Keating Five investigation did make a difference, as members of Congress were afterward far less likely to intercede with federal investigations on behalf of contributors.
In early October 2008, the Keating Five scandal, its possible parallel to the subprime mortgage crisis
Subprime mortgage crisis
The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages....
and liquidity crisis of September 2008, and specifically the role in the scandal of Republican presidential nominee McCain, were briefly emphasized by the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, through a 13-minute "documentary" entitled Keating Economics. This introduction occurred after the McCain campaign began emphasizing the Obama–Ayers controversy. The Keating Five matter otherwise had little impact on McCain's eventually unsuccessful campaign.
Reports
- United States Senate Select Committee on EthicsUnited States Senate Select Committee on EthicsThe U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics is a select committee of the United States Senate charged with dealing with matters related to senatorial ethics. It is also commonly referred to as the Senate Ethics Committee...
. Preliminary inquiry into allegations regarding Senators Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and Riegle, and Lincoln Savings and Loan: Open session hearings before the Select Committee on Ethics, United States Senate, One Hundred First Congress, second session, November 15, 1990, through January 16, 1991. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1991. - United States Senate Select Committee on EthicsUnited States Senate Select Committee on EthicsThe U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics is a select committee of the United States Senate charged with dealing with matters related to senatorial ethics. It is also commonly referred to as the Senate Ethics Committee...
. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, Investigation of Senator Alan Cranston together with Additional Views, Report of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, S. Rep. No. 223, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. 36 (November 20, 1991). Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1991.