Tweet
I blame the New York Times:
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.
The WaPost clearly hasn’t gotten the memo that the coalition is no longer fractured and they’ve rallied around St. McCain because of liberal media said mean things about him.
The implications of that could be dramatic. Last year, when McCain’s campaign was starved for cash, he applied to join the financing system to gain access to millions of dollars in federal matching money. He was also permitted to use his FEC certification to bypass the time-consuming process of gathering signatures to get his name on the ballot in several states, including Ohio.
By signing up for matching money, McCain agreed to adhere to strict state-by-state spending limits and an overall limit on spending of $54 million for the primary season, which lasts until the party’s nominating convention in September. The general election has a separate public financing arrangement.
But after McCain won a series of early contests and the campaign found its financial footing, his lawyer wrote to the FEC requesting to back out of the program — which is permitted for candidates who have not yet received any federal money and who have not used the promise of federal funding as collateral for borrowing money.
Getting your lawyer to weasel you out of an agreement? What a Maverick!
105 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Yea.. BT!
Weasel shit
Whether or not the FEC successfully enforces this, I’m just glad it hit in a way to expose his underhanded financial dealings and reinforce the (true) story of his grubbing for money from lobbyists. Goodbye, Straight Talk Express!
that’s not a hickey, that’s an earmark
-Vicki Iseman
Von Spaskey laughs bitterly.
I wonder what signifigance the Bush refusal to name 4 reps individually for an “UPPER DOWN VOTE” will affect the FEC rulings? 4 slots remain unfilled because we need another Crony on the board?
not an issue to me, if he hasn’t recieved the money yet and his financial horizons are better then when he applied, I don’t care if he opts out
though I don’t quite get it, he’s already their candidate and he should use whatever money he’s being promised for the general, I think he’d be smarter to stay within the public system for financing the campaign
so I don’t get why he even wants out of the system unless he’s already spent more then they were going to give him
I also have no problem with him having his lawyer handle the legal aspects of regaining private funding support
and who have not used the promise of federal funding as collateral for borrowing money.
but he did do that, didn’t he?
and when is aWol going to appoint someone decent to the FEC so it can start working again?
McCain has been sent on a suicide mission, one way ticket as a Dole type
stand-in for the general election… half a tank of gas so he can’t make
it back to the carrier.
When the Pukes lose in November they are going to be so far in the hole they won’t be able to run a guy for dog catcher.
but so what if he’s forces to stay within the system, he has teh nomination sewn up
I think it’s insane if he uses the contributions for the primaries, he should use them for the general
Hi, BT! Love the Photohop!
One of the things that really struck me watching the “debate” last night (there was a lot more agreeing than debating), was that either Clinton or Obama will rhetorically destroy McCain. Unfortunately, the media is sure to drag things so far into the gutter, that rhetoric on its own will not be sufficient to win.
he can only spend another 5 mil, according to the FEC rules, which makes it tricky to stay ahead of his “being in bed with the lobbyist” problem
I think the FEC position is advisory a this point. Since Bush has refused to back down from the von Spakovsky nomination, the FEC has almost no sitting members and so can not make a binding decision.
Let me introduce you to the next President of the United States: Barak Obama.
This next 9 months should be fun ta be a Democrat.
It’s not insane. For purposes of the financing regs, the general doesn’t begin until after the convention, but for practical purposes, it begins as soon as the nominee is effectively determined (meaning now, for McCain.) If he has to follow public-financing spending limits from now until August, he’ll be so heavily outspent that by the time the legally defined general election campaign it’ll be too late.
Furthermore, contributors can contribute the max amount for the primaries and the general. When you’ve got a smaller number of rich donors, rather than a million small donors, there’s a lot of money you can’t spend in the general, because you have people who are maxed out for both.
Yeah, all it can do is generate news stories that he’s not following the rules that are his most famous Senate legacy. *g*
I got the feeling when the story came in that if there is no more to it its a redux of:
Bush AWOL from National Guard with fake documents.
- What is the deal with “hit jobs” just happen to innoculate the candidate from something they actually did. Very convenient.
What’s that optimism coming from the North?
Now valid stories about him doing jigs with lobby people (especially the male lobby buddies) will bring up positive feeling of McCain because the NYT’s attacked him.
The NYT is starting to suck real bad.
Personally, I hope this decision doesn’t stick. I’d rather see as much Republican money wasted on McCain’s campaign as possible. Especially since it will otherwise go to 527s that will be much more actively evil and destructive.
How would he compete with 50 million when Obama could gather that much anew in 50 days (and will likely do it in 20 days or less)?
Hey BT -
I thought that I read somewhere that McCain had used the promise of Fed funds as collateral.
McCain has been sent on a suicide mission, one way ticket as a Dole type
stand-in for the general election… half a tank of gas so he can’t make
it back to the carrier.
——
They are going to need some winning arguments then, and I hope we pick some good people in the primaries – because if 2/3 of turnout of more is Democratic then the Senate and especially the House could get fairly close to veto/fillyBuster proof.
The Dem’s should make sure to force the R’s to fillyBuster now so when they start doing it ever day in 2009 the American people will know whats going on.
this one is beautiful. I especially like the quotes where his lawyer said he was just going to ignore the FEC ruling and either WaPo or NYT quoted former FEC chair saying that mcbushain certainly could not just ignore the ruling — that’s a jailable offense … couldn’t happen to nicer folk.
they’ll prolly just assume IOKIYAR but not clear they’ll get away w/ it this time …
You OK man?
This was a point I tried to make in my scandals list when I expanded my entry 102 on campaign financing.
Another corrupt Republican? Quell suprise. Corruption is the mother’s milk of Republican politicians. They play the American public for chumps. Unfortunately many Americans prove themselves to be willing dupes. This time around the chickens are coming home to roost and the Republicans will be cooked. Make no mistake, however, on the first day of a new Democratic administration the right wing talking machine and the MSM will be in attack mode.
Go to a full court press, it won’t take much to make them act out, the
refusal of the Repukes to cooperate on the Intel and Judiciary conference
talks for the FISA bill is just how far gone they already are… they
have a suicide pact, help’em do it.
Good one!
got it
I think they were trying to draw a distinction (where there wasn’t one) between a promise (to repay in one of two ways either with public funds if things went badly or with private funds if things went well) and collateral (on the public funds alone).
Does anyone know what exactly Obama ‘pledged’ that McCain keeps hitting him with?
They will quickly set up some 525 committees and take the ball for him though the legislation controlling 525s says they can’t coordinate with each other or with him.
O/T -
Missed opportunity last night:
CLINTON: “…change you can Xerox.”
OBAMA: “Right, You’re gonna these voters in the eyes and expect them to believe that you made that ‘got’cha’ one-liner up.”
man, I would have to say that would be some poetic justice right there, if his own law would prevent him from competing against obama or hillary on equal footing
not to worry, corporate media would take up the slack and report his campaign as news and thus saving him add money
he would pull a huckabee;
” I am having this press conferance to show you the adds and commercials that I will not run because of financial regulations”
and then every media outlet on the planet would run those adds
tee hee
could happen you know
yeah, that’s quite the distinction:
please give me a loan. I’ll be able to pay it back no matter what because I’ll be getting public funding
vs.
please give me a loan. I plan to pay it back with the public funding I’ll be getting
MSNBC: Rep. Rick Renzi (R- AZ) indicted on land deals.
The FEC position is he’s committed to spending limits. McCain is asking for a waiver/opt out/exception. There are only 2 FEC members right now and 4 open seats. The FEC can’t grant exceptions until the senate approves more nominees. So until Little Boots sends the names separately, this is a problem for McCain.
Rachel Maddow was giggling about this yesterday on her show.
In the grand scheme, it was remarkable how gently they prodded each other. I truly enjoyed seeing them shake hands. I am very excited for the nomination to be decided and for either Clinton or Obama to be zealously helping the other (let’s hope!) to smash the Repub candidate.
Interesting. He’d already announced he was not running for reelection, right?
Who are you and what have you done to Norske?
Speaking of which, Rienzi of AZ just indicted.
No problem for wacky mac. He’ll just ignore the FEC and do what he wants. They cant do a friggin thing to him. by the time they rule he’ll be prez or back snuggly in the senate.
I came up with something great they can both add to their speeches concerningn lobbyists buying law and influence;
“we don’t want our senators in bed with lobbyists, we don’t want lobbyists allowed to buy our law”
man, mccain will go berserk when he hears one of them say something like that
Yes. Smash we must. Enough is enough. I (joking here) almost wonder whether she was wearing an earpiece, and got told ‘Uh, you just stepped in major shit wit the Xerox line. Better bring out the magnanimity…’)
Great line.
Good to hear. Renzi was on my list of the half dozen Representatives most likely to be indicted.
Looking on the brighter side. Obama’s palpable momentum ought to have a salutory effect on our Reps in Congress. We are coming to the end-times for the current regime, which has lasted more than a quarter of a century. People are losing their fear of speaking out — and this includes moderate Republicans. The same thing happened in 1988/89 when the walls came down in Eastern Europe. People discovered that a lot of other people secretly felt like them, but like them had been afraid to publicly express their thoughts. The thug machine has ruled by fear. Their greatest success was killing off Max Cleland in 2002. After that few Dems were ready to go head to ahead against the Rove machine.
People are no longer afraid. And when they are not afraid, they are a mighty beast.
Given how much the FEC has been politicized, does this action mean Cheney is using everything he can to stop McCain? In other words, is this his doing?
Actually, I think Obama handled the whole thing just about perfectly by moving on. And I say this as someone who voted for Hillary.
John McInept.
-G
Republican Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi indicted on multiple federal charges, sources tell CNN.
He used the Public Financing Money as collateral for a loan prior to the New Hampshire primary. He made the rules and now wants to change them mid-stream. And yes, he is almost at the spending threshold of public financing rules.
Damn liberals are still criminilizing politics.
-Bloody Bill Kristol
poor StVain! i don’t suppose cindy’s feeling particularly generous about bailing him out either, just right now…
whut. to. do?! oh my.
Yeh. I suspect that most of that kind of shit is dreamed up by her desperate staffers. If she loses, she is still a Senator; her staffers go back to whatever lives they had before, instead of to DC to feast on power!
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Please, all you self-appointed censors out there, this is a snark-free, troll-free post. McCain was shot down over North VietNam on his 23rd bombing mission. Has anyone asked or determined what he bombed in those missions? I’m not just talking about putative targets, but what was actually hit. Those of us who lived through that awful war remember the “collateral damage” term that euphemistically referred to schools, hospitals, and residential areas that our bombs often actually hit. If McCain’s missions did this kind of damage to civilians, what part of hero is left in “war hero?”
I am so glad the R’s indictments and trials will be in full swing during election year. I know Rove desperately tried to get these prosecutions under wraps. Thank god for the sunshine the 2006 elections have shed.
i was wondering if that was also partly behind the nyt story …
vp-for-life may not have been invited to be mcbushain’s running mate. Huck would be happy to run along the vp-for-life.
Emptywheel points this out. Paul Charlton is the USA for this district that was fired. This is why he was fired….to keep poor Rick Renzi out of jail.
Can we get a photo of John McInept hugging Renzi?
-G
Someone else mentioned on another thread [don’t want to do no plagarizin’ here] how much better this debate was with the absence of Tweety, Pumpkin’Head, and all the other MSM “It’s All About Me” Moderators. I certainly think so!!
I have never questioned who George McGovern bombed, I won’t do it to McInept.
There are plenty of things to criticize him for, this is not one of them.
-G
This will be another example of Shrub’s patented perpetual motion machine: McCain will claim the FEC isn’t a legally constituted body since it’s missing personnel and claim he’s free to ignore its ruling. Bush will slam and ridicule Congress for “not keeping politics honest” by failing to confirmed his hand-picked cronies. By the time America sorts it all out, McCainus will be president, courtesy of gobs of special interest money. Cheney’s not trying to deep six McCain — he’s trying to make sure the Rethugs hold on to power. Then McCain can resign for health reasons a year into his first term and whoever the party hack they’ve selected for VP takes over, with Cheney still pulling the strings.
cereal hugger?
The McCain-hating GOP Swift Boaters will eagerly pick up on that meme perhaps.
I love breakfast
Like he chose his own fucking targets. God, the shit people come up with!
. . . but I don’t hug it
but are those really raisins?
Some days good news just falls in your lap! *chuckle, chuckle* *g, g*
Do you sense there are a lot of folks who have no clue at all about how the military operates? Other than a kneejerk response of military = all bad all the time?
I agree, we have plenty of his own actions to go after. Let’s concentrate on those.
Buncha maroons!
Exactly. FEC chairman David Mason’s letter merely sets the stage for later action. It is nevertheless damning and can be found here:
http://www.fec.gov/press/press2008/FECtoMcCain.PDF
It lets McCain know he can’t do what he intends to do and asks for clarification on the bank loan, specifically references to matching funds under the section entitled “Collateral Description”. However just as McCain can not withdraw from the public financing system absent a quorum. The FEC can not make a definitive decision or inforce it.
Boyohboy are you Progressives mean & wicked!
Attacking the “most important meal of the day.”
for shame.
i’d luv to see a pic of stvain hugging a big ole box of cheery ooooooooooos.
And the answer to my “Smith” question yesterday?
It was the same crap that I watched leveled at Kerry. I saw some doddering old woman in Manchester outside of a Bush rally in 2004 holding a: “John Kerry, war criminal” sign.
Pathetic.
-G
I’m guilty of this… but I don’t think we need all these interventions and off shore basings and operations that the military is involved with.
We need to have an army to “DEFEND” the county and I see much of that.
Samantha: All I’m saying, that this is—this is a physical expression that the body was, well, it was designed to experience. And P.S., it’s fabulous.
Charlotte: What are you talking about??? I went to Smith!!
That knee-jerk response is perhaps not as widespread as you might think.
boooshco has unfortunately produced collateral damage in countless arenas and populations on this poor old planet. Lots of folks know that, but many may currently feel intimidated and reluctant to call them out on it in public.
Hang on till Nov. VOTE. Speak out whenever and however in the meantime and into the future. Will do the same here. Deal?
Thanks Douglas for telling the truth about those bombing missions in Vietnam that we now glorify. The Pentagon put out publications that they targeted civilians so they would just give up. Instead, the Vietnamese just got damned mad.
I’d like to add to the hospitals and schools, orphanages that were the target. So many children were left homeless or had only one parent and stayed in orphanages throughout Vietnam. They thought they were safe. The war from the skies did the greatest damage to the villagers.
As for Mr. McCain, he’s lucky I wasn’t one of the women who caught him after he burned the flesh off my children because he would’t be running for president today.
The McCain Loan Agreement (skip to page 21 of the PDF)
Couple of article links with more information:
McCain Loan Complicates Financing of Campaign
McCain Told He Must Take Public Money
Of interest to me, in addition to whether or not the money was used as collateral, is his use of “entry into public financing” as a means to obtain ballot access (e.g., in Ohio) without the need for petitioning.
In other words, he got a benefit from being signed on to the public funding.
Which includes — let’s be serious — securing our access to resources. ;-)
I don’t feel too sorry for Cindy. Men like McVain don’t marry nice girls.
Just thought I’d mention that my former rep, Ney of Ohio, just got out of prison and is in a halfway house.
hmmmm… i thot i DID answer it. Did it concern “Sex in the City” character?
I never watch that program. I tried, but I seem allergic to catty people sitting around tables in cities bubbling at eachother. Mebbe it’s ’cause i was raised by wolves, and they lied to me about “life” and whut it’s about. heh.
I did see the movie “The Group” way back in the dark ages. Will that do?
If not, you’ll have to spell it out for me. I’m currently clueless, but will dutifully retrace my steps down the cookie-crumb trail to that thread to see wth i said. Can’t even remember which thread…..
p.s., yer a good fella. enjoy talking with ya. ;->
*wanders away, muttering to self*
I forgot the /s. Does that help?
Oh, I read it as snark. I think it’s funny how the media tries to make the spouses so innocent. If I could be a fly on the wall…
McCain. From “maverick” to, er, “loose cannon”?
i got 2 grown kids and a very special fella goin’ on 43 yrs.
i know a lil’ sumthin’ ’bout life.
Way back when i was trotting around interviewing at various colleges, some sweet, competitive lil’ thing at a nearby institution burbled, “Oh! You don’t want to go to Smith. They all wear high heels there!”
*snerk*
Molly Ivins was a Smithie, thru & thru.
but then, so was Nancy Reagan…
get it? ;->
p.s., Raven 81. Thanks for the hilarious dialog driblet. Saved me a trip back thru the threads. ;->
[edited by mod] John McCain flew bombing missions knowing that there would be “collateral damage” because despite all the talk of pinpoint bombing at the time, our technology was not good enough to be so accurate. There was ample evidence published of the schools, hospitals, and civilian areas that were hit in our bombing attacks. So you see, the point is not that he was ordered to target civilian areas, the point is that knowing that his bombings would inevitabley kill and maim innocent civilians in this tiny third-world country he chose to proceed with his missions. And that’s straight talk.
[Mod Note; Edited to remove insults directed toward another commenter.]
Mod, thanks for protecting me from this character.
I see Quaker Girl is making threats too.
Don’t make me come down there!
Now behave. You’re a big boy. Handle it yourself, with grace and style.
BTW Is it sexist? or some sort of discrimination to hide behind Quaker Girl’s skirts?
egad, just read 83. Society of Friends Quaker? really?
Raven. Sit down and hush, lad.
Secular Humanists aren’t too shabby as friends. Or am I being discriminatory agin? dang this complicated world.
Can’t we all just …. settle down just a little? I think most of us would agree on a whole lotta stuff.
Darn. Just had to go break up a fight tw’ our cats here, and they’re brother & sister who grew up together from day 1.
Must be the moon…
I apologize for jumping into the fray but, really, WHO on earth would glorify those Vietnam missions?! And WHO on earth would blame the people who were drafted to enter into that horror show? Please aim blame where it’s warranted, at the masterminds of the awful mess, not at those who were called up and who served.
The logic here is that everyone who served in Vietnam should kill themselves because we were all complicit. Not the rest of the country, just us.
Sorry, I just can’t take sanctimonious bullshit. Someone is going to EXPLAIN the fucking war to me on a blog, shit.
Raven 100 and 101: You will NEVER hear that from me, nor from anyone thinking honestly and rationally about those awful times.
((((( P E A C E to you, F R I E N D )))))
Thanking you.
Thank you for your service, for your very significant contributions to this blog, and for your patience with us all, good friend. You call ‘em as you see ‘em. I appreciate that.
No, I’m sorry, with our so called “free market” country, no it doesn’t. That way lies privateering and imperialism, the kind we already suffer from. I call bullshit.