Here's what it means and why it's important.
When John McCain's campaign was strapped for cash John McCain opted into the campaign financing system by requesting certification that he was eligible to collect federal money. As the New Hampshire primary approached and John McCain was broke he took material advantage of the system by using the promise of matching funds to borrow money to keep his campaign afloat. And he took advantage of a rule that gives candidates who take public financing automatic ballot access on ballots in several states. (Governor Dean estimated that he spent 3 million dollars in 2004 getting on ballots in states because he had opted out of the public financing system.
Once John McCain had taken advantage of the system by gaining ballot access and securing a campaign saving loan, he won the New Hampshire primary and became the apparent nominee of the Republican Party. He then sent a letter saying that he was opting out of the primary process and claiming that the FEC is now impotent to stop him.
If John McCain is forced to stay in the matching system he will only be allowed to spend $56 million dollars before the Republican convention in September. As of the end of January John McCain had already spent $49 million dollars meaning that today he's either close to the cap or over the amount of money he can spend during the primary.
What does it mean for John McCain? It's yet another issue where John McCain tries to legislate one way and do something completely different. In this case it has to do with campaign finance issues. As Brad Smith, the former Republican FEC
commissioner noted, if McCain drops out of the system the FEC will subpoena McCain, and his staff during and their records to determine whether they violated the law. If they're found to be in violation of the law they can be fined up to $25,000 and they can be jailed for up to five years.What happened today?
Governor Dean announced that the DNC will be filing an FEC complaint against John McCain tomorrow. The complaint will ask the FEC to investigate whether John McCain has broken campaign finance law by taking advantage of federal matching funds to secure a loan, get on the ballot automatically in states and break that commitment by trying to get around spending limits.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
John McCain's other scandal, it's actually quite serious, and criminal
Obama was right. Where was McCain when our soldiers in Iraq needed him?
John Aravosis (DC), AmericaBlog.com: From tomorrow's paper:[American troops in Afghanistan] felt eclipsed by Iraq. As Sgt. Erick Gallardo put it: “We don’t get supplies, assets. We scrounge for everything and live a lot more rugged. But we know the war is here. We got unfinished business.”
Saturday, February 23, 2008
HBO Agrees To Air ‘Taxi To The Dark Side’ After Discovery Drops It For Being Too ‘Controversial’
ThinkProgress.org: Taxi to the Dark Side, a documentary about an innocent Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by U.S. officials at Bagram Air Base, has received wide critical acclaim since its debut in April at the Tribeca Film Festival. The New York Times’s A.O. Scott said, “If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential.”Earlier this month, ThinkProgress reported that the Discovery Channel broke its contract to broadcast Taxi prior to the 2008 elections. With plans to take the company public, executives were afraid the “film’s controversial content might damage Discovery’s public offering.”
In a press release on Thursday, HBO announced that it has bought the rights to Taxi and will show the film in September 2008. TP reader Tim received a similar response from “Viewer Relations” at Discovery Communications, who said that they may also show the film on cable in 2009:
In its first, pay tv window, HBO will debut the film in September, 2008. We are proud that Taxi to the Dark Side will make its basic cable debut in 2009 on Investigation Discovery, the network dedicated to providing in-depth programs
that challenge viewers’ perceptions on important issues shaping our culture and
defining our world.
ThinkProgress spoke with an HBO spokeswoman who explained why the network picked up Taxi: “It’s a great film and HBO always goes after high quality docs.”
A source told ThinkProgress that Discovery agreed to the deal with HBO after intense public criticism — including from the netroots. Discovery executives were also reportedly anxious that if Gibney received the Oscar for best documentary feature, he would make a speech denouncing the network.
How convenient for Discovery that it is now willing to show the film on its own channel in 2009…after President Bush is out of office.
LSB: But if Hillary becomes the Democratic candidate, watch for Disney executives to replay that mockumentary about the 9/11 attacks - and somehow edit the movie to say that the attack on the twin towers was Hillary's fault, not Bill's (and certainly not Bush's fault for ignoring his daily briefings).
John McCain’s lobbyist friends.
McCain’s Placement on Indiana Ballot Challenged
Nicole Belle, Crooks and Liars: I received this from an emailer:This afternoon, Thomas Cook, a voter in Bloomington, Indiana, filed a complaint with the Indiana Election Commission challenging John McCain’s place on the ballot for the May 6 primary. If this complaint is successful, McCain WILL NOT be on the ballot in Indiana on May 6.
According to Indiana law, a presidential candidate can only get on the ballot if he or she collects 500 signatures in each Congressional District. Even though the incumbent Governor (who is up for reelection) is McCain’s Indiana state chair, McCain fell 9 signatures short in the 4th Congressional district — the most Republican district in one of the most Republican-leaning states in the country.
As astonishing as the McCain campaign’s incompetence may be, the audacity of its response is even worse. In order to avoid a major embarrassment, the McCain campaign did what Republicans typically do when confronted with their incompetence: they called in their cronies.
Despite the fact that the McCain campaign clearly failed to qualify for the ballot, Republican Attorney General Steve Carter and Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita (who recently endorsed McCain) rubberstamped it anyway, trying to sneak McCain onto the ballot. Clearly, the Republican Culture of Corruption is alive and well within the McCain campaign.
UPDATE: Complaint available at link above. Thomas Cook blogged his story here.
LSB: Election corruption already? The GOP has all of their crooks in place early, it seems, in order to steal the election.
Bush scores lowest presidential approval rating EVER!
Nicole Belle, Crooks and Liars: Oh look, he’s finally succeeded at something outright.February 20, 2008 - American Research Group, Inc.: George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has dropped to a new low in American Research Group polling as 78% of Americans say that the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group.
Among all Americans, 19% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 77% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 14% approve and 79% disapprove.
Among Americans registered to vote, 18% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 78% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 15% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 79% disapprove.
A total of 78% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse and 47% say the national economy is in a recession. A total of 42% of Americans, however, say they believe the national economy will be better a year from now, which is the highest level for this question in the past year. This optimism does not spread to improvements in household financial situations as 17% of Americans say they expect their household financial situations to be better a year from now, which is the lowest for this question in the past year.
The results presented here are based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews conducted among a nationwide random sample of adults 18 years and older. The interviews were completed February 16 through 19, 2008. The theoretical margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split.
Overall, 19% of Americans say that they approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president, 77% disapprove, and 4% are undecided.
Bay Buchanan on GOP: ‘We assume our candidates have been loyal to their family.’
John Amato, Crooks and Liars: Bay Buchanan said this after calling the NY Times/McCain love fest story a smear/hit job on CNN to Anderson Cooper:Bay: This is not the Democratic Party, this is a party of values. We assume our candidates have been loyal to their family.
&^&*%#@!___Sorry, I—just fell off my chair from laughter. Let’s ask her about David Vitter and Larry Craig and Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani and... Bay, who was supporting the Mitt Romney campaign— feels it would have had an impact on the primary… David Gergen says it’s a red herring that the Times held onto the story for political reasons and then he hit her on the family value meme by reminding her of the Mark Foley story. She just shrugged it off… haha
LSB: Anyone else hear the strains of Paul Simon ("...still crazy after all these years...") whenever this bitch speaks? Must be in the genes.
Cafferty File: McCain’s Been Here Before - Will it Hurt Him This Time?
Bill W., Crooks and Liars: (Click the pic for the vid.) As usual, Jack Cafferty sure didn’t mince words when he succinctly summed up where we stand so far with the NYT’s revelation of McCain’s unusually close ties to telecom lobbyist Vicki Iseman, and asked his viewers to weigh in on whether it will hurt his chances come November:That sounds about right. So what do you think? Is this a mess that’s just going to snowball and bury the McCain campaign or could the scandal actually wind up helping him? So far, McCain seems to think so, as his campaign has now begun exploiting the controversy for a quick buck. How do you see this all playing out?Cafferty: Someone is lying. The New York Times dropped a bombshell on John McCain this morning with a front page story that could cost him the White House.
It’s great reading: an improper relationship with a lobbyist, a woman named Vicki Iseman, his inner-circle convinced they were having an affair, all happening while he was Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was representing telecom companies who had business before McCain’s committee. The two of them together at fundraisers, in his office, aboard private corporate jets … It got so bad that his closest friends and advisers finally stepped in to save McCain from himself.This is all according to the New York Times. The problem with the story is it’s a little on the skinny side. Most of it’s based on unnamed sources and that detracts from its credibility. On the other hand the Times byline contains the names of four reporters who were not likely to go their editor and say ‘look what we’ve got’ if they didn’t have it, and reportedly as far back as December McCain was pleading with the editors at the Times not to run this story.
McCain’s explanation for all of this comes up short. “It’s not true” aint going to cut it. For one thing McCain has been here before. Remember the Keating 5 and the Savings and Loan scandal? And it’s highly unlikely that the Times information from McCain’s inner circle of advisers is all false. You don’t publish a story of this magnitude unless you are on pretty solid ground. So stay tuned, because there is a lot more to come. …
When conservatives decide adultery no longer matters
Most of the argument is about what one would expect, but I was a little surprised to see Gerson give McCain a pass on the adultery charge, even assuming the allegations are accurate.
Even if the accusation of infidelity were true, this kind of past relationship is hardly disqualifying for high office anymore, given a series of more prurient precedents. An affair between adults is a far cry from President Bill Clinton’s exploitation of an intern, which involved not merely a failure of character but also an abuse of power.This strikes me as wrong on a few levels. Not only is the Lewinsky-Iseman comparison flawed, but Gerson’s argument turns conservative standards on morality on their ear.
