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Dems File Suit against FEC to Force Investigation into McCain
It's a pretty little mess. Despite being warned by the chairman of the FEC that he could not withdraw from the primary public funding system without the FEC's say-so, McCain, claiming to have withdrawn, has continued to spend away, by now far exceeding the spending cap. And the FEC remains powerless to act. (Here's our rundown on the whole thing.)
Today, the Democratic National Committee filed suit in federal court, seeking to force the FEC to action. The DNC filed a complaint with the FEC back in February, but since the FEC does not have enough commissioners to officially open an investigation, nothing has happened. The suit asks that the judge order the FEC to act, and if it doesn't, clear the way for the matter to be resolved in court. The soonest that could happen, DNC lawyers say, is June.
Here's a copy of the suit filed today.
Comments (4)
where, oh where has the media gone...
They won't touch this big story, they WANT Mccain to weasel out of his legal obligations so they can rake in a lot more ad revenues from his wealthy, desperate suportes who still think their money can by anything, including our democracy.
But once it really gets into the public sphere, via blogs like this one and coffee-shop, watercooler conversations on the street level, when the media is finally forced to cover it, they will defer to McCain's unrequited deal with Obama to accept public financing, not to McCain's legal obligations.
BIG difference, but the media won't pose it that way. While he was being thumped by Huck The Humble Preacher and Mitt the Millionaire Varmintslayer, McCain was forced by his own campaign failures and his own party "pals" to sign legal documents with the FEC, then used the proceeds to sign more legally binding documents with the bank.
This one is so far out of control and spin, like the "Songbird" story about his defection in N. Viet Nam to avoid torture, http://www.youtube.com/user/VETSAGAINSTMCCAIN
all of this will haunt him once the general campaign is underway.
Rove calls Hillary a "fatally flawed" candidate.... McCain's about to find out what it means to get swiftboated in the rear admiral.
April 14, 2008 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was with you until this, when you went a bit too far.
Whether or not this is true, it's much more controversial than the facts-available-to-all campaign funding/spending issue.
If you want to convince others that this is something worth pushing the media into covering, thereby forcing McCain to explain it, leave the Vietnam stuff out, JEP.
Especially today, people understand the temptation to overspend. They understand committing to a financial plan and having to stick to it, even when it goes bad. They know that when they get locked into a mortgage that has interest payments that take them beyond their means, it's not an easy fix, if there's any fix at all.
So for McCain to flout federal rules without consequences isn't something that will sit will with Americans, once they know about it.
But they have to know about it, so stick to one issue at a time to maintain credibility.
April 14, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with Facilitatrix. The issue here is that McCain has broken the rules... as set out in the McCain-Feingold Act, if I'm not mistaken. If he wants to run our country, especially by accusing the Democrats of being tax-and-spend (which is worse than go-into-debt-and-spend how, exactly?), he needs to use more sense and, oh, legality in his own campaign's management.
April 15, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"they [the media] WANT Mccain to weasel out of his legal obligations so they can rake in a lot more ad revenues from his wealthy, desperate suportes who still think their money can buy anything, including our democracy." - JEP07
And democracy hasn't been bought for years now anyway?
April 27, 2008 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink