“Senator [George] Mitchell [D-ME] was the [Senate] majority leader and [Democratic Senator] Howell Heflin [D-AL] was his stooge and he was doing what he was told because they had, the rest were Democrats in the hearing. So it’s sort of a classic political smear job on John.”

– John Dowd, lawyer for John McCain, on McCain campaign conference call to discuss the Keating Five Scandal, October 6, 2008.