What was Sen. John McCain's role in the Lincoln S & L scandal back in the late 80's?

Answer 1

Not certain. It might be guilt by association, maybe more. In April 1987, Edwin Gray (the chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board) was called to the office of Senator Dennis DeConcini along with John McCain, Alan Cranston, John Glenn, and Donald Riegle. All these senators had received campaign contributions from Keating. They later became known as the Keating five. We all know abut the S&L crisis and subsequent bail out. The Lincoln failure is estimated to have cost the taxpayers over $2 billion.
Interesting fact though, the Senators were Republicans and Democrats. I'm not sure if we will ever know the whole story. Washington has a lot of little dirty secrets.

Answer 2

I believe that he was one of the Senators who wrote letters on their behalf to allow a merger that blew up. Probably regrets that now.