Mark the date. Sometime on Tuesday, Apr. 1, 2014, Charles H Keating Jr. became a footnote … in Sen. John McCain's biography.

No one would have predicted this, not even McCain. Especially McCain.

But we were wrong.

There was a time when McCain's association with Keating looked like it would bring an end to the senator's political career.

In 1989, Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan went belly up, putting taxpayers on the hook for $3.4 billion, or roughly $13.60 from every man, woman and child then living in the United States.

Keating was the most notorious financier in the world and the politicians who were close to him, like McCain, were sucked into his black hole.

McCain was a member of the so-called Keating Five, a group of senators accused of trying to influence regulators on Keating's behalf. There were hearings in the U.S. Senate. There was endless media coverage.

Keating was a major Arizona power broker and a big, blustery character.

And McCain called him friend. The senator and his family went on vacation trips to Keating's home in the Bahamas. They flew on Keating's private jet. McCain took $112,000 in campaign contributions from Keating. McCain's wife, Cindy, and her father invested $359,000 in a shopping-center venture with a Keating company.

Then it all came tumbling down.

Keating was accused of racketeering, fraud and conspiracy, and when asked by a reporter if his campaign donations had spurred politicians to act on his behalf he bellowed, "I want to say in the most forceful way I can, I certainly hope so."

McCain went into survival mode.

He's good at it. After his Navy jet was shot down over Vietnam he was held prisoner in Hanoi from October 1967 to March 1973. His courage and endurance over those six years launched his political career, and may have saved it.

Politics is the art of selling your soul and then stealing it back.

McCain cut off ties with Keating. He described his involvement with Keating, the other senators and regulators as "the worst mistake of my life." McCain said the Keating affair was even more difficult for him than his six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He went on the offensive. In an interview with reporters he said, ''Even the Vietnamese didn't question my ethics."

It worked.

At one time, Keating had 77 law firms working for him. He believed that the politicians to whom he was so generous were tucked away like handkerchiefs in his fancy suit jackets.

McCain picked his pocket.

He survived the senate hearings with a mild reprimand, his colleagues saying only that the senator had "exercised poor judgment."

Keating spent time behind bars. McCain got reelected.

After Keating died this week I heard from a woman whose mother had been one of the investors who lost her savings when Keating's company failed. She had no kind words for Keating, or for his friend McCain.

"It broke my mother's heart, but it seems like everybody involved more or less got away with it and went on with their lives," she said. "While so many innocent people suffered. It makes you wonder. After all these years, does any of it matter?"

That's not the question.

The question is: Did it ever matter?

http://www.azcentral.com/story/ejmontini...rizona/7215855/

Keating isn't a factor in McLames life because there are so many other things that have taken it's place to make him an irrelevant Senator from a small state. He lost to an admitted Marxist for POTUS. His campaign finance law blew up in his face. His wife is a pill popping thief. His fat kid is routinely mocked for her stupidity. The only one who will hang around with him is the laughed at faggot Grahamnesty. His amnesty pushes went nowhere. No one listens to him on anything. All around, he is pretty much a back bencher loser.