Character and ethics issues come to the fore
Barack Obama and John McCain are focusing on each other's ties to controversial figures as the presidential campaign turns more personal
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The attack: McCain's campaign says that Obama's association with a "domestic terrorist" raises questions about his judgment and who he might bring into the White House. Conservative bloggers and other critics say that Ayers gives a window into what they call Obama's hidden radical sympathies.
The response: Obama and his campaign say that when he met Ayers in 1995, Ayers was a respected professor and education consultant in Chicago. While they served together on a couple of boards and live in the same neighborhood, Obama says he and Ayers are not close and he does not seek advice from him.
The record: In 1969, Ayers helped start the Weathermen, which a year later became the Weather Underground to wage a campaign of bombing government buildings. Most bombings only damaged property, including the US Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. But a 1970 pipe bomb killed one police officer and hurt another, and an accidental explosion killed three of the group's members. In 1974, federal riot and conspiracy charges against Ayers were dropped because of illegal wiretaps and other misconduct, and he emerged from hiding. Since getting a doctorate in education in 1987, he has been a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, an author, and a high-profile school reform advocate in Chicago. It was in that latter role that he and Obama crossed paths in 1995. Ayers helped win $50 million from the Annenberg foundation, and Obama became chairman of the board that distributed grants. Later in 1995, Ayers hosted a gathering at his home where a state senator introduced Obama as her hand-picked successor. From 2000 to 2002, the two also served on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago charity. Obama's campaign says he and Ayers, now 63, have not talked on the phone or exchanged e-mails since he started his US Senate term in January 2005.
The attack: Barack Obama's campaign says that John McCain's advocacy for Keating shows that he was deep into the deregulation that not only led to the savings and loan crisis, but also the current Wall Street meltdown. Liberal bloggers and other critics say the Keating scandal torpedoes McCain's claims to be a reformer who would clean up corruption in Washington.
The response: McCain and his campaign note that the Senate Ethics Committee issued only a mild reprimand for "poor judgment." McCain has said that he learned the importance of avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.
The record: McCain met Keating in 1982, during McCain's successful congressional campaign in Arizona, and between 1982 and 1986 received about $112,000 in campaign donations from Keating and his Lincoln Savings and Loan associates. McCain also benefited from flights on Keating's corporate plane to his home in the Bahamas. In 1985, McCain unsuccessfully tried to stop a regulation, which Keating asked him to oppose, that limited how much of their assets S&Ls could invest. Then in 1987, McCain joined four other senators in seeking an exemption from the rule for Keating. Regulators complained about pressure and referred the matter to the Justice Department. In 1991, the Senate ethics panel concluded that McCain, along with another senator, had "exercised poor judgment," while two other senators had given the appearance of impropriety, and a fifth was recommended for censure. Keating himself became a symbol of the S&L scandal that cost taxpayers more than $120 billion. He spent five years in prison after a federal racketeering conviction, but was released when that conviction was thrown out. In a 1996 plea agreement, he admitted to bankruptcy fraud, but federal prosecutors dropped all other charges, and Keating was sentenced to the time he had already served.
SOURCES: The campaigns, news reports
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