Scandal Follows Keating

(It’s a great holiday season for Oklahoma progressives! Read DocHoc’s commentary about it in the Oklahoma Gazette this week. Okie Funk will have a lighter publishing schedule during the holidays.)

You realize how corrupt our political system has become when Frank Keating is actually mentioned as a viable candidate for president.

Keating, a two-term former Oklahoma governor, has resurfaced in media reports recently as someone who is considering a run for the presidency in 2008. Keating, a Republican, now works as president of the American Council of Life Insurers, which is based in Washington.

The media reports are of the “will-he-or-will-he-not?” variety, and are meticulously manipulated by the Keating camp to make him seem like a viable candidate. Do not believe a word about Keating in these mainstream reports, especially any information about Keating from The Daily Oklahoman.

(Here is a revealing site about Keating.)

The larger issue with Keating, glossed over by the mainstream media, is this: As a public servant, Keating accepted some $250,000 from a quirky financier, Jack Dreyfus, to promote the drug Dilantin. Dreyfus thought Keating, first as a federal employee, then as governor, could help him get the drug used widely in the nation’s prison systems. Considered somewhat of a kook by some people, Dreyfus thought Dilantin was a wonder drug that could help society. Keating took money “gifts” from Dreyfus and later set up a meeting between him and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

When the alleged political bribery scam was revealed in the national press, Keating returned the money to Dreyfus.

Some pundits speculated Keating was passed over as a running mate for President George Bush and then later as a nominee for attorney general because of the Dreyfus scandal. Keating was a major Bush supporter.

So Keating will have to deal with the Dreyfus scandal and his earlier, unwavering support for an extremely unpopular president if he decides to run. In addition, Keating has a short temper and is inclined to make nasty public comments. He once said “homicide” was the best way to deal with a teacher’s organization, for example. This also makes him the perfect candidate for the anti-intellectual, right-wing GOP base, but political moderates outside of Oklahoma will find him corrupt, misguided and mean.

These are the only real issues about a possible Keating run for the presidency, and everyone knows it, especially important GOP strategists, but you will have to hunt down this information in the mainstream media, which has become complicit with political corruption in the country.