John McCain Controversies

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Keating Five
Main article: Keating Five

The Keating Five (or Keating Five Scandal) refers to a Congressional scandal related to the collapse of most of the Savings and Loan institutions in the United States in the late 1980s. Lincoln Savings and Loan was insolvent due to some bad loans. In order to regain solvency, Lincoln sold investment in a real estate venture as a FDIC insured savings account. This caught the eye of federal regulators who were looking to shut it down. It is alleged that Charles Keating contacted Senators to whom he made contributions. McCain was one of those five senators and he met at least twice in 1987 with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, seeking to prevent the government's seizure of Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, a subsidiary of Charles H. Keating's American Continental Corporation. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain received approximately $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family and baby-sitter made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. After learning Keating was in trouble over Lincoln, McCain paid for the air trips totaling $13,433.

Eventually the real estate venture failed, leaving many elderly broke. Federal regulators ultimately filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and fraud suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's deposits to his family and into political campaigns. The five senators came under investigation for attempting to influence the regulators. In the end, none of the senators were convicted of any crime, but McCain did receive a rebuke from the Senate Ethics Committee for exercising poor judgment for intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating. On his Keating Five experience, McCain 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.

Chelsea Clinton joke
In 1998, McCain was chastised for reportedly making an off-color joke at a Republican fundraiser about President Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, saying "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."[66] McCain later apologized to President Clinton and Clinton accepted his apology.

Use of offensive term
McCain openly used the term "gook", a racial slur generally used to describe people from Vietnam, in reference to his captors during the Vietnam War. During the 2000 Presidential Campaign, he repeatedly refused to apologize for his continued use of the term, stating that he reserved its reference only to his captors.[67] Late in the primary season, with growing criticism from the Asian American community in the politically important state of California, McCain reversed his position, and vowed to no longer use the term in public.

Claims about Iraq safety
On March 28, 2007, McCain claimed that "General Petraeus goes out [in Baghdad] almost every day in an unarmed humvee".[69] On March 29, CNN's John Roberts revealed the results of his investigation into this claim, "I checked with General Petraeus’s people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee.”[70] On the same day, McCain also claimed that "There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today... The US is beginning to succeed in Iraq."[71] Barry McCaffrey, on the same day, issued a report saying, “... no Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat, reporter could walk the streets of Baghdad without heavily armed protection”.

On April 1, 2007, McCain and other lawmakers visited a Baghdad market and claimed that "things are better and there are encouraging signs".[73] However, the visit was accompanied by enormous security measures, as McCain wore a bullet-proof vest, and was surrounded by more than 100 troops and escorted by attack helicopters.[74] The day after McCain's visit, 21 workers and children from the market were murdered.

Song about bombing Iran
During a campaign appearance in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina on April 18, McCain was asked a question about possible military action against Iran. He responded by singing the lyrics of a 1980 song by Vince Vance & The Valiants, “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”, which parodied the Beach Boys' hit song Barbara Ann.[76][77] When later confronted about the matter, McCain stated, "My response is lighten up, and get a life." Asked whether the joke he made was insensitive, McCain retorted, "Insensitive to what? The Iranians?"

Joke about improvised explosive device (IED)
During a taping of The Daily Show on April 24, 2007, Jon Stewart asked McCain, "What do you want to start with, the bomb Iran song or the walk through the market in Baghdad?" McCain responded by saying,"I think maybe shopping in Baghdad...I had something picked out for you, too — a little IED to put on your desk." On April 25, 2007, representative John Murtha demanded an apology from McCain on the floor of the House, where Murtha said that to make jokes about bringing IEDs back for comedians was unconscionable when so many soldiers are dying from IEDs in Iraq.[79] McCain responded by telling Murtha and other critics to "Lighten up and get a life."

Cursing at Senator John Cornyn
On May 18, 2007 McCain cursed at fellow Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas): "During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources -- both Democrats and Republicans -- who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room. '[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room.'"[81] The comments occurred after Cornyn told McCain, "Wait a second here. I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."