Hoisted on the Fund-Raising Petard

The Senate Ethics Committee has decided Sen. Alan Cranston should hold a shameful and sad distinction. After probing the involvement of Cranston and four other senators with failed S&L; magnate Charles Keating--the “Keating Five” scandal--the committee concluded that only Cranston should be punished in some manner. Not even his colleagues in the Senate will defend the once-powerful Cranston’s honor.

In fairness, the committee found no evidence that Cranston profited personally from his ties with Keating. But that is not enough to excuse Cranston’s conduct in the eyes of most California voters, one reason Cranston has wisely opted not to run for reelection. What an ironic end for a man who rose to leadership in the Senate largely on the basis of the financial help he gave other Democrats.

But it was also Cranston’s fund-raising skill that got him in trouble. Keating, a man accused of defrauding investors of millions and who contributed to a financial debacle that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars, gave $850,000 to political groups controlled by Cranston. In exchange, Cranston intervened on Keating’s behalf with federal regulators--intervention that led to unconscionable delays in dealing with Keating’s financial troubles.

Another once-formidable California pol, Jesse Unruh, uttered an oft-quoted truism when he said “money is the mother’s milk of politics.” Cranston’s sad end suggests that milk has turned so sour as to be poisonous when consumed in large quantities.