The OTHER McCain scandal brewing...

[ourbluenation]

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McCain's lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain has withdrawn from the system and that the FEC can't stop him.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

By accepting the public money, McCain would be limited to spending about $54 million for the primaries, a ceiling his campaign is near. That would significantly hinder his ability to finance his campaign between now and the Republican National Convention in September."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/02/mccain_loan_raises_fec_questio.php

[AlCzervik]

1. oh, this could be very interesting.

[ourbluenation]

4. I know. campign finance reform czar trying to get around his own rules.

between that and his cozy relationship with a telecom lobbyist while he chaired the commerce committee. it's delicious.

[AlCzervik]

6. "Hoisted by your own petard, table for one?" or maybe 3 in his case.

[blondeatlast]

7. He's always called on "naivete" to get out of these things. He swore in his

book that he didn't know that flying on a Keating private jet to meet with Keating was an ethics violation--and to top it off, he realizes NOW that he should have known, but didn't, that Keating was attempting to influence him.

Um, DUH.

He's either so maniacally convinced of his own purity that he really believes this stuff or he has not an ounce of innate morals and is as dumb as a shoe besides.

And he wants to be President. Good Lord.

[Beausoleil]

9. Well, he should have known

that the North Vietnamese were trying to get something out of him, too. That "naivete" thing works wonders.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Jesus.

At this rate he'll have to concede before the election.

[blondeatlast]

3. KO mentioned this in passing on Monday and I've been trying to find a source ever since.

KO said it was a sneaky way to get around McCain/Feingold, of all the irony. Between the fact that he was pulled away from a lobbyist and may have violated his own legislation, I can't wait to see how this plays out. As a longtime Arizonan, I've been expecting the stuff to come crashing down for decades. I hear thunder...

[spinbaby]

5. Ironically

I think he's the victim of the vast, right-wing conspiracy.

[blondeatlast]

8. You give them WAY too much credit. They are playing defense on this.

Always the weaker position.

[Disturbed]

10. “Hypocrisy, my friends, is the most obvious of political sins

— and the people will punish it,” John McCain


John McCain Hypocrite
by Doug Ireland

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.


The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.


Here's what the AP's investigation found:


McCain repeatedly intervened on behalf of a policy Cablevision favored -- one which "congressional and private studies conclude could make cable more expensive" -- while his chief political adviser, Rick Davis (who's masterminding McCain's probable '08 presidential rerun) solicited $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision to an institute that promotes McCain and pays Davis a $110,000 annual salary.


The Reform Institute was set up to promote McCain and his issues--especially campaign finance reform, embodied in the famous McCain-Feingold law. This Institute is "a tax-exempt group that touts McCain's views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign," and it "often uses the senator's name in press releases and fund-raising letters and includes him at press conferences," the AP says. And, of course, it provides a cushy sinecure with no heavy lifting for McCain's main man, Davis, as he prepares the pontificating Senator's next presidential run. Cablevision's contributions account for a whopping 15% of the Institute's budget.


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm

[ourbluenation]

11. to be clear...he tried to use his future eligibility for federal matching funds as collateral.

Presumably, he did this in order to get the money he needed to keep his campaign afloat without using the matching funds themselves as collateral. And the reason it was important not to use those funds as collateral was that according to the FEC, doing so would constitute "accepting " those funds, and thus subjecting himself and his campaign to the limitations that go with it.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/02/the-other-mccai.html

sneaky little so and so.

[tekisui]

12. This is why he is on the offensive about public financing in the GE with Obama.

He's locked into it, now, because he's already tapped into it.

[ourbluenation]

16. Exactly. But not Sen. Obama, right?

[tekisui]

18. No, Obama can go either way, as of now.

He hasn't taken any public funds, yet.

[ourbluenation]

19. excellent position to be in. he's doing everything right. n/t

[tekisui]

20. I continue to tip my hat to him and Axelrod.

They have consistently done the right thing at the right time.

[LSparkle]

13. Good -- maybe now he'll stop chiding Obama about that "pledge"

Whenever the subject comes up, I scream at my TV, "ask McCain why HE decided to opt for public financing!" because that's the big story. And on top of that, Obama never flat-out agreed (as McCain claimed) -- he agreed he would DISCUSS the matter, and put several conditions on his acceptance of the pledge. Glad this is biting McLame in the butt!

[displacedtexan]

14. He also managed to get on the Indiana ballot illegally.

Crook and Liars

The details will be in the DU Blog Box tomorrow on the homepage.

[liberal N proud]

15. Two in one day - WOW!

And he isn't even officially the nominee yet.

This could be a fun ride to November.

[Ichingcarpenter]

17. Three in one day

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2903036&mesg_id=2903036

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3191667&mesg_id=3191667

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3190736&mesg_id=3190736