and McCain called his wife a cunt in public,
wait till the general public gets ahold of that

McCain is the worst candidate ever. He's now made this a much bigger issue than it would have been if he had said nothing, or repeated his apology and said that that is all in the past.

I think I'll skip listening to the call.  I have a low tolerance for whining.

But, as another commenter mentioned, it's nice to see McSame having to play defense.

BigO doesn't have to do that re Bill Ayers.  He'd already done that in the primaries, and now he's got the NY Times watching his back.

McCain has described his involvement in this scandal as "the worst mistake of my life".

Pretty impressive, that the worst mistake of your life is in no way wrong.

Terrible defense because as has been mentioned, McCain admitted he made a mistake and showed terrible judgment. So how can you now say
"McCain didn't do anything wrong"?

Also the video isn't about retrying the Keating case, but linking McCain's admitted poor judgment in fighting regulation then with him still fighting it now. You'd think somebody who was caught up in Keating and admitted his mistake would have figured regulation was a good thing.

The Obama camp needs to make sure that the connection to the present is the story, and not simply the retelling of the original story.

I don't understand why they didn't just say something like, "John McCain learned important lessons from that experience and has been an agent of change ever since." Certainly wouldn't put the issue to bed or hand him the election, by any stretch. But it seems like it would at least be more effective than this . . .

Dowd has certainly had a newsworthy career. He was Monica Goodling's lawyer when she appeared before Congress to discuss the U.S. attorney firings, and he also was hired by former major league baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti to investigate allegations that Pete Rose bet on baseball games, producing the Dowd Report of his findings.

If Keating was not McCain's constituent, McCain would have been found just as guilty as the others. Setting aside whether or not he was found guilty of violations in this instance, it is 100% plain to see that he took overt action to push deregulation. Dowd can say whatever he wants, but his comments are irrelevant to the fact that McCain pushed for dangerous deregulation that has led to our current financial crisis.

John "whatever-it-takes" McCain.

The message is McCain was in the middle of Keating and should have seen that deregulation is the wrong way to go. But instead, despite seeing how deregulation ravaged a lot of folks in the Keating instance, he became a vehement deregulator all his public life - even up to moments before the current economic crisis started to explode.

Hell he's on record saying he wants to deregulate health care like the banks have been deregulated.

And then you have Gramm, neck deep in Enron to boot. And Gramm is McCain's lead financial adviser.

And still McCain's campaign has over 100 lobbyists working for it in a paid capacity.

You can't make this stuff up.

Surprise, surprise, McCain and everyone around him are full of s***.

McSame lost the election when he pretended to rush back to D.C. to save the day and threatened to blow off the 1st debate unless the financial crisis was resolved. Not only did he look like he was trying to politically exploit the financial crisis, he also looked like he was afraid to debate Obama, which pissed the people off who were undecided and were genuinely anxious to see him debate Obama to make their decision who they'd vote for. Then when his histrionics to save the day failed and despite his claim he wasn't going to go to the debate unless the crisis was resolved, he showed up for the debate anyway. And when the undecided voters, looking through the filter of his failed attempt to gain political capitol from the financial crisis saw a mean-spirited curmudgeon too emotionally immature or disrespectful or arrogant to even look at Obama let alone look him in the eye, they realized that placing their fates in John McCain's hands was not something that made them feel warm and fuzzy.

Dowd singled out the late Sen. Howell Heflin (D-AL), who vocally criticized McCain at the time, for particular scorn. "But you know, Sen. Mitchell was the majority leader, and Howell Heflin was his stooge," said Dowd. "And he was doing what he was told because the rest were Democrats in the hearing. So it's sort of a classic political smear-job on John."

I suppose Mitchell, Heflin and the rest are no longer available to be interviewed or take exception to being publicly slandered for their actions. It's also a low-blow to the Congress. A sitting Senator slandering the committee that investigated his involvement in a scandal. I do so hope McCain's colleagues take note. I would think it to be an ethics violation, but what do I know. I'm just a voter.

Stuff like this makes me increasingly worried about McCain's ability to govern. Part of it may be that he's 72. Too bad for the Silent generation...McCain was probably that generation's last chance for a US President.

Obama similarily is the first nominee of his generation--Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Xers. Here's a new 5 minute video well worth watching about Generation Jones, with numerous top pundits (e.g. Clarence Page, David Brooks, Juan Williams, Howard Wolfson, etc.) discussing Generation Jones' key role in the '08 election:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ta_Du5K0jk

If McMajorShit has a coronary during tomorrow night's debate, it's Obama vs. Palin and four weeks out. Would the Repub heirarchy even allow for her to replace McCain? Rudy could step up, volunteer to be the sacrificial lamb (har, har).

Truly it can be said that McCain has again shown himself to be 'fullern shit than a christmas turkey' as the locals put it.

Has John Dowd ever had a client who wasn't guilty, guilty, guilty? (See also: disgraced Arizona ex-Gov. Fife Symington.) And the famous Dowd Report on Rose managed to make its morally leprous subject look upstanding by comparison. What a mouthpiece.

M entally unfit to serve
c erebral cortex hemorrhaging
C allous
a ngry
i nfantile
n ot very nice

P athetically underqualified
a ntagonizes conservatives (We like that!)
l ost
i n over her head
n ew interview with Katie C should clear up everything

From the front page link to WaPo:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/keating_inquiry_appears_differ.html

Note the WaPo update - it was Dowd asking the question.

In little over an hour, Dowd's credibility was shot. To people who have followed his career for decades like I have, he has no credibility. But that this was dug up that quickly, and made it to the MSM that fast... damn!

Got to go viral on that puppy. As others are pointing out, by offering up this revisionist defense so at odds with McCain's own portatial of his Keating 5 history (which frankly always undersold it anyway), the McCain Campaign is practically begging for the MSM to rip them apart. This really is the Rick Davis story all over again. The Key difference - McCain wasn't at the center of the Davis story. In this revist to the Keating 5, McCain *is* in the middle. And opening up their defense of it with revision and flat out lies... just a staggering mistake.

Since it's Dowd and McCain, it couldn't happer to a better pair of jackasses.

John

The campaign is over. This is debris.

If McCain thinks everyone who has crossed him is a stooge, he must think half the goopers in the senate are stooges.
He's an angry old man who has some serious issues. After he loses this election, whatever reputation he ever had is shot. I wouldn't be surprised to see him retire when his term is up. Unless, of course, he wants to stick around as a thorn in the side of President Obama.
The next two years until his term is up are going to be miserable for him. I will feel no sorrow.

So basically, he is sorry or something he never did. Or, for something that he did but wasn't really wrong. Or, something…

His running mate is no better. With regard to the Palin's recently released tax forms, there are very large, questionable deductible expenses claimed and huge amounts of income not reported. And, predictably, a tax attorney offers the opinion that—essentially—there is nothing to see here. It's not a problem.

The link from the TPM story is here:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/222227.php

A discussion of this emerging issue is available here, as pointed to by TPM's David Kurtz:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2008/10/tax-profs-agree.html

In response to the fact reported, I asserted the following…

"The test are pretty clear, and it's abundantly clear that the Palins jointly and H&R Block are pushing the boundaries here.

To the extent that payment in advance, or reimbursement of, reasonable travel expenses for the Governor herself exceed deductible expenses associated with official travel, that amount is taxable. If they reported NO expenses, then it is all taxable.

The allowance paid for her family members, including her husband and children, are decidedly NOT deductible, and are quite likely paid in violation of Alaska law.

The losses associated with 'snow machine racing activity' are deductible only if this activity represents reasonable business expenses, and only to the extent that it is not declared the hobby that it quite likely is. Expenses must have a business—not recreational or pleasurable—basis, must be reasonable and must be supported by adequate documentation.

Short synopsis: they are previously undiscovered 'tax cheats.' Cloak it nicer language if you will, but that's what they are, based upon the facts reported.

It is important to understand that they have an obligation to truthfully report income, including that not reported by others to the IRS. The failure of their employers to report such income does not absolve them of a tax liability, though it may mitigate the penalty if they find a sympathetic examiner or auditor."

And more. Did I mention tax cheats?

Right. And this guy is an attorney, right? Well, we all know they NEVER lie. Now....where's that bridge to nowhere?

ben smith today at politco:

The case for Keating being less relevant is that McCain hardly hides the affair. He called it, in his 2002 autobiography, "the worst mistake of my life." He remade himself as a reformer in reaction to the scandal. McCain's case isn't that you should ignore his sin, or that it isn't a sin; it's that he's expiated it.

oops.

McCain and Glenn both should have gone to jail with the other three, but then I guess nobody could bring themselves to convict a former POW and an astronaut. The sentimental public must be protected from having their 'heroes' outed as thieves.

the 13 minute video about mccain and keating, in case you missed it:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/m2/55c13561/5018157d/6ca88670/1188b9ac/3974543652/VEsH/

cheers,

dt