DNC Seeks FEC Probe of McCain's Finances

Posted by Phoenix Woman, Firedoglake at 7:47 AM on February 26, 2008.

Last Saturday, in my post on DNC Chair Howard Dean's laying the smack down on John "Double-Talk Lobbyist Boy" McCain, I referred to a line used by one of the Dudley Boyz, ECW's famous tag team, whenever they were about to put the hurt on somebody: "D-Von! Get-- the table!" Well, consider the table procured.

Hard on the heels of the FEC's telling John McCain that his attempt to weasel out of his campaign finance pledge stank to high heaven, the DNC has weighed in:

The national Democratic party wants campaign finance regulators to investigate whether Sen. John McCain would violate money-in-politics laws by withdrawing from the primary election's public finance system.

McCain, who had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary, has decided to bypass the system so he can avoid spending limits between now and the GOP's national convention in September.

Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason notified McCain last week that he can only withdraw from public financing if he answers questions about a campaign loan and obtains approval from four members of the six-member commission. Such approval is doubtful in the short term because the commission has four vacancies and cannot convene a quorum.

"John McCain poses as a reformer but seems to think reforms apply to everyone but him," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday.

The DNC said it plans to formally seek an FEC investigation Monday.

And, as promised, that's what the DNC is doing.

One of the things the FEC is being urged to examine is a loan that McCain got for his campaign last year. The loan wasn't secured directly by McCain's potential access to public funds, but his agreement with the bank that lent the money required him to reapply for public funds if he lost early primary contests (which he had) and to use that money as collateral.

McCain mouthpiece Brian Rogers immediately tried to muddy the waters by pointing out irrelevantly that Dean himself had withdrawn from the public financing system during the 2004 election season. DNC spokesperson Stacie Paxton retorted that unlike McCain, Dean didn't take out any loans that would have committed him to remain in the public financing system.

Now, of course, McCain could do what Republican politicians all-too-often do when in a situation like this: Break the law and count on his Republican buddies in the Bush-politicized DoJ to refuse to enforce the criminal penalties -- and on his buddies in the GOP/Media Complex to continue to defend him reflexively. But the DNC's just made that a wee bit harder to pull off with a straight face. Furthermore, by this time next year there will be a new president and Congress -- and John McCain will not be that president. The new, Democratic president will pick qualified candidates to fill various governmental posts, including those in the FEC, and will probably have more than enough Congressional support to get these appointments confirmed with ease. As this WaPo article from December notes, the statute of limitations on most campaign finance violations is five years, which means there's plenty of time to nail McCain should he put a foot wrong.

Even before the switchover to a democratically-elected (as opposed to selected) occupant of the White House, there are ways for McCain to be made to suffer over this. The DNC's lawyers are probably considering various ways that they can use legal action to bleed a few dollars from McCain's already-low coffers. The point of these actions is not to win them, though that would be nice -- it's to sap his ability to run his campaign from now until September.

Pass the popcorn, kiddies: This is going to be good.

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Tagged as: campaign finance, dean, mccain, fec, republican party, democratic party, dnc

Phoenix Woman is a regular blogger for FireDogLake