Gee, is this fact or rumor?
....It isn't difficult to imagine McC ain's excitement when he realizes that the wealthy Keating has decided to back McCain with all the money he needs.
With Keating solidly behind him, McCain imagines he might even become president of the United States.
It is at this point that things begin to spin out of hand. Keating is so rich and powerful that he takes command, not only of McCain but also of the state's senior senator, Dennis DeConcini.
McCain's wife, Cindy, and his father-in -law invest $350,000 in a Fountain Hills shopping-center project with Keating. McCain is certain no one will ever take the trouble to find out. He believes he has the perfect answer to any criticism. There is a prenuptial agre ement. The money is his wife's to do with what she wants. He misses one point. It would be one thing to buy a fur coat without consulting your husband. It is something else entirely to invest nearly a half million dollars.
There is a dramatic meeting with Keating who tells McCain that all he has to do is keep his mouth shut and no one will ever be the wiser.
Keating tells McCain there is nothing to fear and the ambitious senator is convinced.
Until this point, the Arizona media had been repelled by Keating's repeated threats to sue any and all publications that dared to print unfavorable stories.
Before he realizes, McCain is in too deep with Keating. He has been i nexorably drawn into a lavish lifestyle consisting of free rides on Keating's personal jet planes and vacations at Keating's opulent home in the Bahamas. And by this time, McCain has accepted $112,000 from Keating in campaign donations. McCain has crossed over the line.
And when the savings-and-loan scandal strikes, McCain and four other senators are caught in the storm.
The novel's final chapters will revolve around an investigation of M cCain, DeConcini, Alan Cranston, Donald Riegle, and John Glenn, who helped Keating by creating pressure on bank regulators. In the novel based on these events, McCain might save his soul by making a dramatic public confession. He would stand before a packed gallery and admit that he had lost his moral focus.
And then McCain would walk proudly out of the hearing room with his wife on his arm. His political career would be over but his honor would be restored.
In real life, the McCain story may end on a more cynical note. He will sell out Keating, just as he tossed aside Tully, who was once so close he became godfather to one of McCain's children.
We will remember Jo hn McCain as a self-serving egoist who skulked through the corridors of power. We will never forget the desperate man selling his soul in an effort to make the Senate Ethics Committee believe he had done no wrong.
The final ch apter of McCain's real political life backs up a terrible suspicion many have held.
Truth is stranger than fiction. Even though he has been in the headlines for almost a decade, we still haven't gotten to know the real John Mc Cain. It would be one thing to buy a fur coat without consulting your husband. It is something else entirely to invest nearly a half million dollars. McCain will sell out Keating, just as he tossed aside Duke Tully....
- from The Selling of John McCain's Soul
By Tom Fitzpatrick
phoenixnewtimes.com |
