Last night while in NYC for his appearance on The Daily Show, John McCain also made time to attend a controversial fundraiser hosted by New York Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson IV on his behalf that may not have violated the letter of the campaign finance laws that McCain championed just a few years ago, but certainly the spirit of them. The event was said to have raised over $7 million, including a pledged $100,000 each from the 19 co-hosts and another $25,000 from each of the 39 co-chairs. Donors were apparently not limited by the $2,300 cap on individuals and could give tens of thousands of their own cash thanks to McCain's Victory Committee created specifically to get around donation limits.
This isn't the first McCain fundraiser to raise eyebrows. Just a few days ago Judicial Watch "filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Senator McCain's (R-Arizona) campaign may have accepted an in-kind contribution from foreign nationals in contravention of federal election laws" for a fundraiser that "took place in London, England, on March 20, 2008 -- and Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton says the event involved two British nationals."
You may also recall that the McCain campaign has already "officially broken the limits imposed by the presidential public financing system" and is facing lawsuits. On Tuesday, the White House moved to "rig any FEC enforcement decision concerning campaign finance questions" related to it. Also, McCain has been breaking the campaign finance law he backed just last year that requires presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on corporate jets through his campaign's privileged use of his mega-millionaire wife's "Sugar Momma Express" at heavily discounted rates, which is especially troubling that he's able to tap into such marital perks since McCain keeps all of his assets in his wife's name, save for one checking account, and, as Steve reported earlier, Cindy McCain's now openly swearing that she will "never" release her tax info.
The lengths to which McCain is going to get around the very rules he used to support until they applied to him and the secrecy surrounding his wife's assets is very troubling. He's becoming more and more McSame as Bush every day.