All You Need To Know About the 2008 Election...

McCain Celebrated 69th Birthday as Katrina Hit

McCain blasted Bush's handling of Katrina today, saying, "I would’ve landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally."

Huh. I wonder what Bush was up to when Katrina was hitting New Orleans.

Luckily we have a picture.

I shit you not:



McCain's 69th Birthday party. I wonder if he got around to telling Bush to take care of New Orleans.

Yeah, probably not. Cake!!!

[ThinkProgress]

Great Moments In McCain-Is-Insane History: Bomb Bomb Iran

Great Moments In McCain-Is-Insane History: The Chelsea Joke

In 1998, when Chelsea Clinton was 18 years old, John McCain made this joke at a fund-raising dinner:

John McCain:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because Janet Reno is her father."

Classy, McCain. Classy.

[Salon]

Great Moments in McCain-Is-Insane History: The Keating Five Scandal

Maverick? Campaign Finance Reform Advocate? Straight-talker?

How about member of the Keating Five?

And no, it's not a basketball team. Or a polka band.

Let us go way back to the heady days of the late 1980s, a time before blind people knew George Michael was gay. Back in these silly, innocent times, instead of hedge funds, people with way too much money on their hands invested in savings and loan associations, which in turn invested in real estate. Like hedge funds, the "experts" making the investments made colossally bad bets and lost other people's money. One of these idiot investors was a man named Charles H. Keating, Jr, who headed the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.

Well. Turns out that after accepting a substantial donation from Keating, after his family invested over $300,000 in Keating's business and got all buddy-buddy, and after multiple rides in Keating's personal jet (in violation of Congressional rules), McCain interceded on his behalf multiple times with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Bad move. According to the New York Times, the collapse of Lincoln Savings and Loan cost taxpayers $3.4 billion.

In the end, despite these shenanigans and breaking multiple ethics rules, McCain got off light, with a criticism from the Ethics Committee for "questionable conduct."

Questionable indeed.