John McCain has officially broken the limits imposed by the presidential public financing system, according to spending reports filed last week by the campaign.
The senator from Arizona has spent $58.4 million on his Republican primary effort. Those who have committed to public financing can spend no more than $54 million on their primary bid.
McCain’s lawyers contend that the spending cap no longer applies. The senator was certified to enter the matching-funds program last year when he was starved for cash. But once he started to win, he decided to hold off. On Feb. 6, after his Super Tuesday victories, he wrote to the Federal Election Commission to announce he would withdraw. His lawyers said that gave him freedom to spend as much as he wanted.
This seems like the quintessential story of hypocrisy, no? The “straight-talking” Senator responsible for passing campaign finance reform legislation is now breaking his own rules simply because it’s convenient. Hopefully the media will snap out of it’s collective love affair with McCain and point out this rather glaring contradiction. Oh, who am I kidding.
Hopefully the DNC’s pending FEC complaint will yield some results.
No Trackbacks To “Campaign spending limits don’t apply to mavericks“
PermaCred rises again!
Not a chance the MSM will do anything but kiss up to McBush.
does anyone see the irony in this?
maybe mccain can borrow some cash from the chinese to fund his “war”
Oh please. Can’t you just hear it now?
“In a time of war we have to pick our commander-in-chief based on the grim realities we face in this OMG THE MOOSLIMS ARE COMING TO KILL US ALL, not the technical niceties blah blah blah.”
If they could throw the First and Fourth Amendments into the garbage because of the Scary, Unprecedented New World we’re in, you think campaign-finance laws are worth anything to them? The Republican attitude is “Hell, McCain is he only one who wanted any of those anyway. He can break ‘em if he wants.” Worst he’ll get is some joshin’ at the country club.
I agree that there’s not a chance the MSM will do or say much about this. And as far as the FEC doing anything substantial here either….furgettaboutit.
McSame also conveniently forgets that he received a letter from the FEC saying he cannot unilaterally pull out from public financing. It is something that has to be voted on by the entire commission. So, either way you look at it he is breaking the law and he knows it.
Don’t you know laws don’t apply to Republicans.
Those rat bastard MSM’s are too busy shoving Jeramiah Wright down our throats.
And Hillary is just feeding them material. Nice work Hil.
But again, Obama lies in the carribean sun while they assiassinate his character. This is no time for vacations. Get off your ass Barack. FIGHT BACK!
“they shoot horses, don’t they?”
McCain isn’t a war hero. He isn’t a straight talker. He isn’t a maverick, or a moderate, or an independent.
Even if that photo of him obsequiously hugging Bushie Boy didn’t exist, I’d still despise him.
Meanwhile, Nancy Reagan is Named as McCain’s Economics Guru
OT… How come no one is talking about this?
http://www.opednews.com/articl.....lost_j.htm
No one in his campaign actually touched the money. They just used it for collateral, so they didn’t technically use it. Oops, never mind. I think I may have misspoken.
#7: “But again, Obama lies in the carribean sun while they assiassinate his character. This is no time for vacations. Get off your ass Barack. FIGHT BACK!”
I thought the same thing too at first but then I remembered Covey’s seventh habit — sharpen the saw. This is the habit of self renewal, says Covey, and it necessarily surrounds all the other habits, enabling and encouraging them to happen and grow.
The vacation is a good thing. You’ll see.
one of the “Seven Habits” and the most important habits is to “sharpen the sword.” I suspect that’s what he’s doing right now. I admire him for knowing that.
gwb said the same thing. “the law doesn’t apply to bubble heads.”
Che’s Lounge @ 7:
whats next? wind sailing? ah memmories!!!!!john kerry
“McCain’s lawyers contend that the spending cap no longer applies.”
I have a Lawyer who says i own Microsft. I am letting him have half if he wins.
Nancy Reagan endorses McCain
No, ya don’t say.
L.A. Confidential @ 17:
nancy reagan still gives ronny head!
tyree @ 18:
“Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided and then we endorsed. Well, obviously, this is the nominee of the party.”
But you don’t understand! John McCain is the only white, heterosexual male in the race. He HAS TO win!
Cats r Flyfishn @ 11:
“How come”?
1) Because no one cares about it but you
2) It is, as you’ve indicated, off topic
3) It’s either old news or no news
4) It has relevency to anything of any consequence
5) You’ve already posted it on other threads and been
ignored
Hope this is of help to you.
And here I was hoping Nancy would be an Obama girl….
guess she’s a McCain babe!
A repug broke the law. Par for the course. The FEC has no Quorum, so it cannot act. And they can’t let Bush appoint more crooks to the FEC. The law and the gubmint are broken.
Didn’t Obama do the same thing?
Che’s Lounge @ 7:
There is absolutely no rush. Obama can let these people exhaust themselves fighting over how to make him the nominee without letting the CLIEbermans destroy the party. Pass the Marguerita, please.
This ain’t like boosh playing the guitar while people drown.
Why on earth would you imagine that McCain would respect some minor ruling? You let Bush get away with every demand (constitutional or not) for 7 years. When the opposition fails utterly to organize, or successfully demand that boundaries be respected to reign in despots, you’ve just set up the formula for more despots.
Seven years of Bush’s evil and failed presidency have been matched by seven years of failed liberal opposition. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Did you think things would simply become more moral the moment Bush exited?
Barrett D @ 24:
No, he didn’t. He signed some university survey asking if he would accept matching funds and said he would consider it. He did NOT notify the FEC that he would accept matching funds and certainly did not use a promise of those funds as collateral for a loan. Huge difference.
As a contributor to both Kucinich and Dodd who voted for Obama in my state primary, I say McCain is righteous on this one. He did everything he could, in a timely fashion, to comply with the McCain-Feingold requirements and the commission has effectively stonewalled him through lack of a voting quorum.
I don’t hear Russ Feingold complaining about this.
In addition, it’s a free speech issue. To the extent it would muzzle McCain when he has attempted to comply, the law is unconstitutional.
Let it go. Pick your battles.
I’m with anonimouse @ 28: on this.
We’re talking peanuts and the FEC hasn’t met to discuss it or rule on it.
No biggee
Most money in politics stinks. The money paid to former Presidents stinks worse. No wonder the Clinton’s are relucant to release the figures on donations to Bill Clinton’s library.
Even without full disclosure, the Washington Post confirmed numerous seven-figure donors to the library through interviews and tax records of foundations. Several foreign governments gave at least $1 million, including the Middle Eastern nations of Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the governments of Taiwan and Brunei.
In addition, a handful of Middle Eastern business executives and officials also gave at least $1 million each, according to the interviews. They include Saudi businessmen Abdullah al-Dabbagh, Nasser al-Rashid and Walid Juffali, as well as Issam Fares, a U.S. citizen who previously served as deputy prime minister of Lebanon.”
And I’m sure they all donated expecting nothing in return. Right.
What a hypocrite! The senator from the “right to work” state of AZ is using public financing to keep his campaign alive. This is welfare fraud at the highest level. Plus, he’s stealing Elmer Fudd’s look.
This is the kind of shit that McCain gets away with, like most all the republicans with the national media.
It is the reason this country is so screwed up and we are the biggest fools of all because we are far to nice to these people.
We allow them to get away with this kind of shit all the time.
The highest law of The Land:
IOKIYAR
McCain could rape a screaming, pregnant woman on national TV,
then rip the glistening baby out of her womb
with his bare hands, tear it apart and eat it raw,
and the Corporate media would ignore it in lieu of:
“Reverend Wright Squeezes Charmin & destroys Obama Campaign.”
IOKIYAR overrules everything!!
Even if it’s in sarcasm, let’s stop promulgating this “straight-talking” nonsense about John “Insane” McCain. McCain is as much a self-involved prima donna as George W. Bush. He says whatever he wants to say — regardless of the facts — whenever and however he wants to say it. Being a “maverick” against incontrovertible evidence and common sense is indistinguishable from being a mindless idiot. If McCain were all alone, I’d worry that his tilting at windmills was going to get him hurt. However, he has a desperate, greedy, ruthless following that might accidentally sweep him into the White House, and that’s only going to hurt all of us.
L.A. Confidential @ 17:
===================================================================
Yeah–Her Astrologer told her that Mercury was in Uranus (or hers),
plus Nostradamus and Reverend MOON both agree she should vote for Insane McCain.
Just like her dead hubby—A real deep-thinker.
Although I must say, Ronald Reagan’s ethics and morality
are far better today than they were in the 80s.
Now why is that?
Noone will care. Why? Because he’s a republican who hasn’t (that we know of yet) molested little boys, hired prostitutes, blew men in a bathroom, or traded personal safety for blowjobs to scary black men. Their bar of excellence is so low, McCain’s violation of campaign finance reform still places him miles above the standard for a republican.
98% of repugnicans are at 99% immoral.
Fact, not opinion.
Punch a rightwinger–It’s good for them, and they will thank you for it.
Let’s not forget that a few months ago McCain hectored Obama to abide by public financing in the general election, which the media swallowed hook line and sinker.
RainMaker @ 35:
Entropy.
Didn’t McCain tell you - If the future president does it, IT’S NOT ILLEGAL!
He’s a war hero with PTSD. It’s dangerous to tell him “No.”
I am going to steal your car.
It’s okay, because I have opted out of the laws against theft.
When your elightened with yourself as McCain appearently is, from the power he musters from his position as Senator his State entrusts him with. He is still one of the Keating Five.
Why should laws apply to someone as important as John. The laws he writes are for the less afluent.
He removes the laws that bind the wealthy to some sort of accountability.
anonimouse @ 28:
LOL…
McCaint ‘08: Breaking the law, just because we McCain.
Anybody tell McCaint he won the primary already? Now that is a modern conservative in action. Another bridge to nowhere!
Hello on February 07, 2008,
President Bush delivered his final address to the National Prayer Breakfast,
John McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman. along with 4000 other guest.
With speculation rife that Lieberman might possibly become McCain’s running mate, when asked Lieberman as to whether this breakfast was to discuss that possibility.
“No,” Lieberman insisted, “we pray for each other.”
The National Prayer Breakfast is an auual event put on by Doug Coe of “The Family”
I would like to guess at this point in time the name of McCains running mate remember
this is just a guess and not the gospel.
Jeb Bush
One thing you can always count on with republicans.
They always want you to do as they say not as they do!
McCain shows he’s got what it takes to be president by ignoring FEC rules.
After securing his parties nomination, John McCain began to assert his pre electoral presidential authority by opting out of the FEC’s matching funds program.
A McCain spokesman is quoted as saying, “The matching funds program is clearly directed towards candidates who are not the front runner. That is why we used the program to secure a loan when we were down in the polls, and help defray the costs of getting on the Ohio ballot. The loan and ballot assistance really came in handy, and helped us focus our resources on the issues, which is what this election is really all about. But at this point, with the nomination sewn up, it no longer makes sense to be part of the program.”
On Tuesday, President Bush endorsed Senator McCain’s initiative ignore FEC rules. “Running for President is hard work” the President said. “By locking a candidate into a signed contract binds his hands from doing what he needs to do to become president. And that’s what the terrorists want, to limit the candidates options. There are people who want to harm America, and I think American’s want to know that a presidential candidate will do whatever it takes to win an election, and keep America safe”, the President told a bewildered press corp.
“The stakes are so high in this election”, the President went on to declare, “that administration has had all current and future campaign filings associated with John McCain’s run for president sealed and classified as a matter of National Security.”
The ACLU responded by issuing an emergency freedom of