Obama: Keating Five Fair Game - Let's get ready to RUMBLE! [View All]

[DearAbby]

Posted below is an email I just received

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Obama: Keating Five fair game
Ben SmithSat May 10, 3:28 PM ET

One more report from Carrie Budoff Brown in Oregon:

Obama was asked today about DeFazio's comments Friday raising Sen. John McCain's entanglement in the Keating Five, and the Illinois senator said the issue was fair game.

The campaign issued a statement yesterday to Politico that seemed to suggest otherwise, saying there were enough differences with McCain on issues and "that is where we will focus our campaign." And in DeFazio's second appearance last night in Oregon, a rally in Eugene, the congressman omitted Keating Five from his remarks.

But today, Obama told reporters that the issue was not out of bounds.

"Congressmen DeFazio delivered a speech that wasn't my speech," he said. "I don't think there is any doubt John McCain's public record about issues that he has apologized for or written about are not germane to the presidency. I was just asked previously about a whole host of associations that are a lot more flimsy than John McCain's relationship to Keating Five and what I have said is that I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that and me having to answer questions about it."
DeFazio, an Oregon superdelegate who has endorsed Obama, told a crowd Friday in Albany, Ore.: "John McCain has already told us he doesn't know much about economics. He says we need less regulation. Hello? Wall Street, mortgage meltdown, Bear Stearns, taxpayer bailout, Enron. But I guess maybe for a guy who was up to his neck in the Keating Five, and savings and loan scandal, less regulation is better for his friends. No, that is not good for the American people."


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