McCain Loan Raises FEC Questions

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government's top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can't drop out of the primary election's public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.

Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.

McCain's lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain has withdrawn from the system and that the FEC can't stop him. Potter, who was FEC chairman in 1994, said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.

"Well, it was done before in another campaign. ... We think it's perfectly legal. One of our advisers is a former chairman of the FEC, and we are confident that it was an appropriate thing to do," McCain told a news conference Thursday.

Read more: http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=213&sid=1349054

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Please don't just read the first 4 paragraphs this is good stuff

Which could really hurt McCain.

[tanglefoot]

2. it is good stuff

but he'll probably get off by crying about all the red tape.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

3. FEC Warns McCain on Campaign Spending

Source: Washington Post

The nation's top federal election official told Sen. John McCain yesterday that he cannot immediately withdraw from the presidential public financing system as he had requested, a decision that threatens to dramatically restrict his spending until the general election campaign begins in the fall.

The prospect of being financially hamstrung by the very fundraising system he helped create is the latest in a series of bitter challenges for the presumed GOP nominee, who still faces a fractured conservative coalition as he assumes the mantle of party leadership.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/21/AR2008022103141_pf.html

---

Kind of puts his lame challenge to Obama in perspective. How can he demand that Obama keep a so-called public financing pledge if he can't even get his own house in order!

[gratuitous]

4. McCain set his own trap

And blundered into it when he won the Republicans' "Last Man Standing" contest. It was supposed to be Romney or Giuliani or somebody else. McCain would have been happy to just shuffle off, but when everyone else imploded, vaporized, or just plain self-destructed, he got stuck with a long campaign and no money.

Bummer, Maverick John.

[IntravenousDemilo]

5. Maybe that's one reason Huckabee is still in the race.

GOP and McCain operatives possibly took Huckabee's people aside and said, "Keep the primary race going as long as possible. We'll even fund you."

[McCamy Taylor]

6. If McCain has "won" the nomination, why does he need to spend anymore money?

He can go back to DC and be a Senator until September.

[electron_blue]

7. woot! k&r

[jasmine621]

8. I'll say it again: The Republicans are going to come up with a better

candidate. Mark my words. They will throw McCain under the bus (where he belongs). They cannot hope to win the WH unless they get McCain off the top of the ticket.

[Supersedeas]

9. the small but cozy world of right-wing campaign finance