Bush bails out McCain,
but at what cost?
Tommy Wright
Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: Opinion
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The Federal Election Commission is normally made up of six members, but it currently only has two. On the commission's Web site, it states that no more than three of the six commissioners can be members of the same political party. And to take action, the commission needs at least four votes from its members.
On Tuesday, Bush announced three new candidates to the Federal Election Commission. The nominees did not include current chairman, David Mason.
Bush nominated two Republicans and one Democrat to join the current Democratic commissioner, Ellen Weintraub. Hans von Spakovsky, a Republican, was a recess appointment by Bush, but his term expired. He was re-nominated in January, but Democrats have opposed him, according to an article published by the New York Times on Friday.
Donald McGahn, a lawyer for the National Republican Congressional Committee, is slated to replace Mason.
In February, Mason sent a letter to McCain in which he questioned if McCain could withdraw from the primary election public financing system. McCain originally applied for the public financing, but later withdrew when his campaign picked up steam. Mason asked McCain in the letter to elaborate on the loan before he was let out of public financing.
Mason wanted McCain to clarify if he used public funds as collateral to obtain $4 million in bank loans.
The questions Mason brought up in February could have ended up as a thorn in McCain's side. If the commission was put back into working order, the Democrats could join with Mason and penalize
McCain if he was found to have broken public financing laws. The way he received the loans could be considered accepting public funds, if he used the promise of the funds to receive the loan.
If that happened, McCain could have been forced to follow the public financing laws and would have limited funds until the general election begins, according to public funding information on the Federal Election Commission's Web site.
An article published by the New York Times on Friday quoted Sen. Barack Obama's campaign lawyer, saying it is "inconceivable" that McCain didn't have knowledge of Bush's decision to leave out Mason.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Ted Rudow III,MA
posted 5/12/08 @ 10:33 AM PST
"When John McCain made this comment that we went to Iraq for oil, and the media gave him a complete pass..And I thought, well, clearly the media are still in love with a John McCain who did not vote for George Bush in 2000 and was an independent, a maverick, somebody who many of us had fallen in love with in the media. (Continued…)
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