"Tell me with whom you walk, and I'll tell you who you are," goes the old adage.

By that wisdom, John McCain is Phil Gramm, which is another way of saying he's Wall Street and corporate America. Not only has McCain filled his campaign staff with big-business lobbyists, but he's also put such corporate-minded characters as Gramm by his side as top policy advisors, walking in step with them.

You might remember Phil as the right-wing Texas senator who chaired the Senate banking committee. He rammed through a Wall Street deregulation bill that suddenly let powerhouse investment banks move into exotic financial schemes that were balanced precariously atop predatory subprime mortgages. Having been the magical congressional alchemist for this rapacious scheme of turning poor people's home-ownership dreams into Wall Street gold, Gramm left the Senate to go — where else? — to Wall Street!

For the past six years, he's been vice president and top lobbyist for UBS, one of the world's largest investment banks and a major player in the subprime mortgage game. Unfortunately, that game has gone very badly, and as a result, UBS has posted $37 billion in losses in just the past six months. Thanks, Phil.

But disastrous economic failure hasn't daunted Gramm, who has been McCain's national campaign co-chair and financial policy guru from the start, even though he continued lobbying for UBS. Now, he's walking McCain over the economic cliff, having developed the GOP candidate's recent policy of coldly dismissing relief for duped borrowers and rejecting public regulation of Wall Street's profiteering schemes. Guru Gramm is also pushing McCain to raise America's retirement age, privatize Social Security and further deregulate Wall Street.

Did I mention that Gramm is in line to be Treasury Secretary if McCain wins? And that, my friends, is who John McCain is.

AGING AGITATORS

There's an old cliche that smug right-wingers like to fling at us: "If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. But if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain."

Even if that's true, there's a third phrase in life that should be added to this aphorism: "If you're not a radical at 60, you haven't been paying attention."

Ours is a culture that celebrates youth — which is not a bad thing at all, since there is a freshness and idealism in the young that gives our society spark. Yet oldsters, too, bring something special to the cause, for they are in a unique position to question authority, defy the corporate order and stand up for progressive values. Also — let's face it — the clock is ticking, so it's definitely time to break loose, make a difference ... and have some fun being disobedient!

I was reminded of this enormous possibility for seniors to buck the system when I attended an event in Los Angeles recently with a group of old folks who proudly call themselves "aging agitators." They work through an organization called Sunset Hall, and its members range from blue-collar retirees to people from the entertainment world.

Sunset Hall is not a place for the sedentary — it is an activist organization. Many of its members came thorough labor battles, challenged Joe McCarthy, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., protested the Vietnam War, helped found the modern women's movement and pushed environmental issues to the fore. They are not about to sit back now. Instead, they continue to put their grey heads on the line, both for local and international issues, and they reach out to younger activists who might need a little support, guidance and old-time oomph.

Being an agitator is all about attitude — not age. Connect with these freethinking elders at www.sunsethall.org.

To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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