Campaign finance

In the past several days the White House has stepped in to protect John McCain from a campaign finance mess, nominating a new member to the Federal Election Commission who will let McCain off the hook unless Senate Democrats are able to prevent the appointment.

Mr. McCain had applied for public financing for the primary when his campaign was struggling, but he decided to bypass the system after his fund-raising improved. The public financing system gives candidates access to millions of dollars in matching money from a taxpayer fund but forces them to abide by strict spending caps before the party conventions. Mr. McCain has by now far exceeded the $54 million cap that he would have been bound by under public financing.

Barack Obama's campaign lawyer lays it out.

“In this one move, the White House ended McCain’s accountability for his use or abuse of the primary public financing system while putting him in position to take money for the general,” he said, adding: “It is inconceivable that McCain was not informed of the plan. In fact, it is highly probable that he was involved in its formulation or its approval.”

At minimum, said several campaign finance experts, Republican officials obviously understood the implications for Mr. McCain.

Meanwhile, McClatchy reports some real concerns about (not to say disgust with) the Clinton campaign's financial resources -- and the manner in which they've been accessed.

Hillary Clinton's decision to lend her presidential campaign $6.4 million from assets she holds jointly with her husband is rekindling questions about millions of dollars that special interests have paid Bill Clinton for speeches and other work since he left the White House.

In tapping some of that cash, "the Clintons have effectively bypassed campaign finance reform in a manner that's ingenious — using Bill Clinton effectively as a front for the fundraising," said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor.

Beginning days after he left the White House in 2001, the ex-president has been crisscrossing the globe, speaking roughly 250 times on tours that brought him more than $40 million in six years.

The sponsors have included investment banks that later suffered billions of dollars in losses in the sub-prime mortgage debacle and now have a big stake in any regulatory changes; an insurance group with an interest in any overhaul of the nation's health care system; a group that favors the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China; a Colombian business development group that backs a free-trade agreement and more than two dozen Jewish groups, synagogues and museums.

Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson dismissed such concerns, saying: "There are no conflicts of interest, and every dollar either of them (the Clintons)have made is all publicly available."

However, said Jacobs, the director of the university's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance: "There appear to be a number of prominent, wealthy corporations in the financial services sector, the health care sector and others that stand to gain considerably from the election of Hillary Clinton as president," said Jacobs. "If all of these groups were giving to her directly, there would be all sorts of questions raised . . . ."

That will undoubtedly be given more play than the dubious behaviors of John McCain in his fund-raising.  But the McCain campaign finance issue could surface again during the final stretch of the presidential campaign this summer.  After all, he's the "reform" guy. 

Not.

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