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McCain Loan Raises FEC Questions! More Problems For The McCain Man Makes Tabacco Wonder If GOP-Right Trying To Sabotage Another Republican? - RI10
McCain Loan Raises
FEC Questions! More
Problems For The
McCain Man Makes
Tabacco Wonder If
GOP-Right Trying To
Sabotage Another
Republican? - RI10
Tabacco: The Republicans, through another Republican known for decades only as “Deep Throat”, set Nixon up. They advised him to bug the Watergate, turned the “Plumbers” in, and sicked “Deep Throat” on Nixon using Woodward & Bernstein as their plumbing tools. (Nobody ever tells the whole Truth about anything in America, except yours truly).
George W. Bush used Dirty Tricks to undermine McCain during the 2000 primaries and get himself elected president instead. So much for “Compassion”! America knew then that “Compassionate Conservatism” Bush self-approbation was BS! But the best place to hide Skeletons from US voters is in plain sight! That applies only if the MSM cooperates, which in 2000 they did.
Now Tabacco does not know exactly which sub-category of the GOP is attempting to sabotage John McCain this time. But I am certain they are Religious-Right, QuasiCons and Republican. How many Dirty Tricks do these guys have to work on us before we get the idea!
McCain Loan Raises FEC Questions
WASHINGTON, Thu Feb 21, 09:55 AM
Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., looks on as he speaks at a news conference in Toledo, Ohio. Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The government's top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can't drop out of the primary election's public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.
The Public Financing Law should stipulate that if, after accepting public funds, a candidate then wants to “opt out”, he or she must repay these funds first! After all, these funds came from the American taxpayer! You would think that a bunch of lawyers in Washington could foresee that loophole, wouldn’t you! - Tabacco
Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.
McCain's lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain has withdrawn from the system and that the FEC can't stop him. Potter said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.
"Well, it was done before in another campaign. ... We think it's perfectly legal. One of our advisers is a former chairman of the FEC, and we are confident that it was an appropriate thing to do", McCain told a news conference Thursday.
McCain, a longtime advocate of stricter limits on money in politics, was one of the few leading presidential candidates to seek FEC certification for public money during the primaries. The FEC determined that he was entitled to at least $5.8 million. But McCain did not obtain the money, and he notified the FEC earlier this month that he would bypass the system, freeing him from its spending limits.
But just as McCain was beginning to turn his attention to a likely Democratic opponent, Mason, a Republican appointee to the commission, essentially said, "Not so fast".
By accepting the public money, McCain would be limited to spending about $54 million for the primaries, a ceiling his campaign is near. That would significantly hinder his ability to finance his campaign between now and the Republican National Convention in September.
Complicating the dispute is the FEC's current lack of a quorum. The six-member commission has four vacancies and Senate Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads over how to fill them.
In his letter, Mason told McCain he would need the votes of four commissioners to accept his withdrawal from the system.
"The commission will consider your request at such a time as it has a quorum", Mason wrote.
Without action by the Senate, McCain could be waiting indefinitely.
"We believe that Senator McCain had a clear legal right to withdraw from the primary matching fund system and he has done so", Potter said. "No FEC action was or is required for withdrawal".
Potter said McCain will continue with his campaign and not adhere to the public financing system's limits on spending. Without a full commission, Mason has little enforcement power. Likewise, without an FEC, McCain has no way to appeal Mason's conclusion.
At issue is the fine print in the loan agreement between McCain and Fidelity Bank & Trust. McCain secured the loan using his list of contributors, his promise to use that list to raise money to pay off the loan and by taking out a life insurance policy.
But the agreement also said that if McCain were to withdraw from the public financing system before the end of 2007 and then were to lose the New Hampshire primary by more than 10 percentage points, he would have had to reapply to the FEC for public matching funds and provide the bank additional collateral for the loan.
In his letter to McCain, Mason said the commission would allow a candidate to withdraw from the public finance system as long as he had not received any public funds and had not pledged the certification of such funds "as security for private financing".
Citing the loan agreement, Mason wrote: "We note that in your letter, you state that neither you nor your (presidential campaign) committee has pledged the certification of matching payment funds as security for private financing. In preparation for commission consideration of your request upon establishment of a quorum, we invite you to expand on the rationale for that conclusion".
McCain has been an outspoken critic of the FEC and he and Mason have had ideological differences over campaign finance law for years. Tabacco: That’s not a strong enough motive to sabotage a drowning GOP presidential nominee! There has got to be more to it! The Republican Party has made its bed, and now it must lie in it! When you cast your lot with the Nut Fringe from the Rapture Right and the Bigots in the Deep South, you must realize there are potential problems ahead – you’ve got to be able to see that! Republicans don’t just play “Hard Ball”, they don’t permit anybody else to even wear baseball gloves.
"We will of course carefully review and respond to the questions asked about the collateral for the campaign's bank loan", Potter said Wednesday. "We very carefully negotiated that loan on the basis that the federal matching funds certification we held would not be security or collateral for that loan".
One former Republican FEC chairman, Michael Toner, said McCain should not need action by the FEC to pull out of public financing.
"If a candidate indicates he or she does not want the money and does so before payments are made and does not take advantage of the promise of future payments, then he or she is free to withdraw from the system", said Toner, who advised former GOP presidential contender Fred Thompson. "That's my understanding of exactly what happened here".
The dispute comes at an awkward time for McCain. While he has sought to bypass the public financing system for the primaries, he would like to participate in the system for the general election and he is attempting to hold Democrat Barack Obama to his offer to participate in the system too.
If McCain were to face Obama in the general election under public financing rules, each would get about $85 million to spend between September and Election Day in November. McCain would be the clear beneficiary because Obama has become the most prolific fundraiser in presidential politics and likely would be able to amass much more than $85 million from his donors.
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Federal Election Commission: http://www.fec.gov
http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Article?articleId=386939&categoryId=29
One final note: Below is a Screen Capture of a portion of the Senate vote in Bill Clinton’s Impeachment. Please look at lower right hand corner of image; you will note that John McCain voted “Guilty”!
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00017
Tabacco: I consider myself both a funnel and a filter. I funnel information, not readily available on the Mass Media, which is ignored and/or suppressed. I filter out the irrelevancies and trivialities to save both the time and effort of my Readers and bring consternation to the enemies of Truth & Fairness! When you read Tabacco, if you don’t learn something NEW, I’ve wasted your time.
In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization) – Think Tank For Other 95% Of World