McCain's involvement in the last financial crisis

Here's a documentary about John McCain's involvement as a member of the Keating Five in the S&L crisis in the late 80s and early 90s. That crisis bears a lot of similarities to the current mortgage mess.

During that scandal, McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating. Federal regulators had identified irregularities in his firm's accounting; McCain and four other senators wanted the regulators to look the other way.

The result was that Keating remained in business for two more years, looting senior citizens and others of their life savings. The bailout ended up costing American taxpayers nearly $3.5 billion (and that's 1991 dollars; with inflation, it'd be a lot more today).