If you’re puzzled over Republicans’ apparent inability to offer timely, creative and effective solutions to help dig America out of this economic black hole — one into which their own failed policies have sucked us lightyears from where we began — you’re not alone. Fresh ideas nowhere to be found, GOP leaders still seem pre-programmed to try bamboozling the citizens of this land using the very same stale gimmicks — more tax cuts for corporations and the affluent — that helped get us into this mess.

After meriting a couple of momentary mentions during the primary season, the “Keating Five” scandal — the 1980s savings-and-loan debacle that Sen. John McCain once called the biggest mistake of his career — now has surfaced again in all its ugly glory. As global financial stability today teeters on the edge of collapse, those looking for reasons leading to the present meltdown should take a close look at the Republican presidential candidate’s regulatory philosophy over his quarter-century in Congress and his role in the infamous S&L scandal.