Spin Cycle

Is McCain proposing more regulation or less regulation to deal with the Wall Street mess? That's not a rhetorical question. Here's his statement this morning:

"It is essential for us to make sure that the U.S. remains the pre-eminent financial market of the world. This will be a highest priority of my Administration. In order to do this, major reform must be made in Washington and on Wall Street. We cannot tolerate a system that handicaps our markets and our banks and places at risk the savings of hard-working Americans and investors. The McCain-Palin Administration will replace the outdated and ineffective patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight in Washington and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street. We will rebuild confidence in our markets and restore our leadership in the financial world."

The confusion: Talk about "a system that handicaps our markets and our banks" is pretty classic de-regulatory rhetoric. Has McCain ever been an advocate of more regulation of anything?

His top economic advisor, Phil Gramm, was one of Congess' leading financial de-regulators when he was in Congress. And McCain's first moment of notoriety as a Senator came as a member of the Keating 5 -- a special pleader for Arizona donor/fatcat Charles Keating, trying to get regulators to lay off while Keating ran his S & L empire into the ground, at taxpayer expense.

Speaking of which: If McCain now promises to be a big financial reformer, isn't his role as a facilitator for Keating fair game? Refresher course here. Below: McCain with his lawyer, Plato Cacheris, at the Senate Ethics Committee hearing into his role. Right: Keating.