I was on a conference call with Howard Dean and DNC General Counsel Joe Sandler yesterday and they were discussing their complaint to the FEC about McCain's matching funds violation of the spending limit. I believe Dean's purpose is to get the McCain campaign to stop breaking the law in which McCain had a hand in drafting. The hero of campaign finance reform is hypocritically violating that law.
Dean: This is a guy that says one thing and does another. We want John McCain to obey the law...
MyDD was on the call as well and goes into more details.
John McCain's attempted politically motivated gaming of the public financing system is already drawing the attention of the Federal Elections Commission, with the chairman of the FEC firing off a letter to McCain's presidential campaign asking them to explain why, after they had been certified to become a part of the program, they believe they're able to pull out without approval. Now the Democratic National Committee is joining in the act, and will file an FEC complaint tomorrow against the McCain campaign...read on
Howie Klein has the choice quote from Howard Dean:
"The crucial issue here is John McCain's integrity. John McCain poses as a reformer but he seems to think reforms apply to everyone else but him... His latest attempt to ignore the law is just more of his do as I say, not as I do hypocrisy and it calls his credibility into question. McCain financially benefited by accepting this agreement; he got free ballot access, saving him millions of dollars, and he secured a $4 million loan to keep his campaign afloat by using public financing as collateral. He should be held to the law."
Update: The DNC has filed its complaint today.
More than this, his campaign also got free ballot access, worth millions of dollars, because of his public financing. But now -- after he's received all this financial help -- he wants to unilaterally withdraw from the program.
This is about more than spending limits and the FEC; this is a question of integrity...read on
Here's the pdf of the complaint also.
