TPMMuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Campaign Finance Watchdog Reduced to "Offering Advice"

Campaign Finance Watchdog Reduced to "Offering Advice"

By Paul Kiel - January 9, 2008, 10:42AM

We gave a rundown of the possible effects of the FEC's shutdown on the 2008 election last week. The Washington Post reports that until one side budges, the two remaining commissioners will show up in the meantime "to offer advice instead of binding decisions on questions from political campaigns."

9 Comments

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Sounds like an electoral version of Click and Clack...

Posted by JEP
January 9, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink

Don't we as citizens have ANY recourse to this kind of partisan gridlock? The FEC is our political police force/judge. How can we seriously go into yet another election season with an utterly disabled watchdog? How does one file a lawsuit to force them to do their jobs for the protection of the American electorate

Posted by conniptionfit
January 9, 2008 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink

Reagan tried this once and it was shot down. Bush is doing the same old thing. As it stands, it appears that the administration is back to their use of dirty tricks to win elections. At the same time, the Democrats just sit back and don't do anything about it.

Why hasn't the DNC filed a lawsuit to bring this issue to a head?

I can't believe it's one that the President and the Republicans could possibly win.

Posted by dogjudge
January 9, 2008 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink

conniptionfit,

Could we as citizens petition the U.N. to send in observers to oversee U.S. elections?

Posted by Billy Pilgrim
January 9, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink

We do have a recourse, it's called impeachment. This is not "partisan gridlock," it's an administration using government for partisan advantage.

The best outcome for the Republicans would be to have their corrupt official on the FEC, and the next best would be having no FEC at all during an election, since they have no compunction about using dirty tricks to win. The best outcome for the country (and the one that fulfills that oath of office they apparently lied their way through) is to have the FEC staffed with people who have a history of supporting its job, not undermining it.

Do the math. We have a President of the Republicans. With luck, in a year, we'll have a President of the United States again.

Posted by Redshift
January 9, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink

This is fine; it is better than actively facilitating voter fraud.

Posted by nofltwlt
January 9, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink

Speaking of voter fraud:

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)

2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Mitt Romney Mitt-Romney-MBA Sep-07 , Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand :
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

Posted by Robbo
January 9, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink

Billy,

Good idea to ask the UN to observe the elections, but Bush would probably take a cue from Putin and deny the observers visas.

Posted by Roberta
January 9, 2008 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink

Democracy is really in it's last throes in America, isn't it...

Posted by danger
January 10, 2008 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink