Keating 5 ring a bell?

It's impressive to listen to friends who don't customarily pay attention to political events explain their intentions to evaluate the current platforms proposed by candidates and make an informed decision, divorcing a candidate from past actions.

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They ignore events swirling around a candidate. They ignore past conduct and focus on current promises and recent 'conversions.'

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Such is the case of Charles Keating and Senator McCain's involvement.
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My personal appreciation for fairy tales of political sorts, attracted me to Rosa Brooks' easy to understand explanation in the LAT:

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Once upon a time, a politician took campaign contributions and favors from a friendly constituent who happened to run a savings and loan association.

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Ms. Brooks concludes (emphasis mine):
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...despite his political near-death experience as a member of the Keating Five, McCain continued to champion deregulation, voting in 2000, for instance, against federal regulation of the kind of financial derivatives at the heart of today's crisis.

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Shades of the Keating Five scandal don't end there. This week, for instance, news broke that until August, the lobbying firm owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage giants implicated in the current crisis (now taken over by the government and under investigation by the FBI).

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Apparently, Freddie Mac's plan was to gain influence with McCain's campaign in hopes that he would help shield it from pesky government regulations. And until very recently, Freddie Mac executives probably figured money paid to Davis' firm was money well spent.

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"I'm always in favor of less regulation," McCain told the Wall Street Journal in March.