Since Obama announced he was opting out of public financing, the MSM and the McCain campaign have been are beside themselves with spin, with McCain trying to take the high road, and the media paving the way. This despite McCain's lack of integrity on the issue of campaign finance reform.
One thing is certain, Obama's move, while not a complete surprise, is about to shake up the political establishment.
More below the fold.
First McCain's troubles, from Josh Marshall:
McCain Breaking the Law in Plain Sight
I mentioned earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC's rules, we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)
I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can.
The most generous interpretation of what happened is that McCain's lawyer came up with an ingenious legal two step that allowed him to double dip in the campaign finance system, eat his cake and spend it too. But even if you buy that line, successful gaming of the system doesn't really count as strict adherence. And the point is irrelevant since the head of the FEC -- a Republican -- says McCain cannot do this on his own.
Like everything that has to do with campaign finance, the details are a little ... well, detailed. But they're worth understanding. Last February in this episode of TPMtv, we explained just how McCain cheated the campaign finance laws ...
Video: TPMtv: Campaign Finance Deformed
Black Pot Call Home:
Someone help me here. McCain is grandstanding on public financing when he is, as we speak, breaking the law by continuing to spend unlimited primary campaign money after opting in to public financing for the primary phase of the campaign?
And then greenlighting the outside 527s to go after Obama only days ago?
Something doesn't compute.
At the time, the DNC responded to McCain's flip flop:
Democratic Party Files Complaint Against McCain for Ignoring FEC Law:
Today we're filing a complaint with the FEC against John McCain's campaign. In the complaint, we ask them to investigate whether the McCain campaign is about to violate the spending limit law he agreed to when he became eligible to receive matching funds.
I've embedded the document below, or you can download here.
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The press release we issued a few days ago expresses pretty nicely how this scheme by McCain's campaign worked:
In order to receive matching funds, John McCain signed a binding agreement with the FEC to accept spending limits and to abide by the conditions of receiving those funds. The FEC makes clear that any request to withdraw from the agreement must be granted by the FEC. In other words, McCain can't just unilaterally withdraw. FEC Chairman David Mason made this clear in a letter to McCain advising him that the law requires the FEC to approve his request to withdraw from his contract.
According to past Commission rulings, the McCain campaign would not be allowed to withdraw from matching funds because it has already violated a key condition for being let out of the program - pledging matching funds as collateral for a private loan. McCain obtained a $4 million line of credit -- drew $2,971,697 from it - and documents make clear that the promise of public financing was used to secure his loan.
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.
Today, the complicit news organizations are spinning Obama's announcement as a "broken promise," but they know the truth: Obama pledged only to work out an agreement with the GOP nominee.
Attorneys for the Federal Election Commission recommended commissioners allow the Illinois senator, among the early front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination, the ability to have it both ways when it comes to the presidential public financing system.
In a draft opinion posted Thursday in response to a request from Obama, the commission’s general counsel said Obama could raise contributions that would otherwise disqualify him from participating in the public financing system but return them later if he won the nomination and wanted to receive taxpayer money for the general election campaign.
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"We’re in uncharted territory here," he said, calling Obama’s plan "a way that hasn’t been tried before."
The draft opinion "moves the ball forward in preserving the public financing system this cycle," he said. But he added that Obama wouldn’t necessarily commit to participating in the system if the commission approved his proposal.
"It would be a situation where if the Republican agreed to opt-in to the public financing system, it would be something we would explore," Burton said.
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(emphasis added)
NYT, March 2007:
Such a pact would eliminate any financial edge one candidate might have and limit each campaign to $85 million for the general election. The two candidates would have to return any private donations that they had raised for that period.
Mr. Obama laid out his proposal last month to the Federal Election Commission, seeking an opinion on its legality. The commissioners formally approved it on Thursday.
The manager of Mr. McCain’s campaign, Terry Nelson, said he welcomed the decision.
"Should John McCain win the Republican nomination, we will agree to accept public financing in the general election, if the Democratic nominee agrees to do the same," Mr. Nelson said.
A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Bill Burton, said, "We hope that each of the Republican candidates pledges to do the same."
Mr. Burton added that if nominated Mr. Obama would "aggressively pursue an agreement" with whoever was his opponent.
link
(emphasis added)
WaPo, March 2007:
THANKS TO an innovative request from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the Federal Election Commission voted yesterday to try to salvage the endangered public financing system for presidential elections. Now it is up to presidential candidates who claim to support that system to put real commitment behind their rhetoric.
The FEC ruled that candidates can raise general election money now -- as most top-tier contenders are doing -- but change their minds down the road, return the private money and accept public financing instead. Candidates who are sincere supporters of public financing ought to be willing to pledge to stay within the system if they win their party's nomination and the other side's nominee promises to do the same.
So far, the indications are favorable. "If Senator Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election," spokesman Bill Burton said after the FEC action. He was matched by the campaign of Arizona Sen. John McCain. "Should John McCain win the Republican nomination, we will agree to accept public financing in the general election, if the Democratic nominee agrees to do the same," said campaign manager Terry Nelson.
The 2008 campaign had been shaping up to be the first in which both parts of the post-Watergate presidential financing system collapsed. By the 2004 race, the cost of campaigning and the capacity for fundraising had so outstripped spending restrictions for the primary campaign that none of the serious contenders agreed to accept matching funds in exchange for limiting his spending. This time around it looked as if the system of full financing for the general election -- each major party nominee would receive about $85 million in exchange for forgoing private funds -- would be obsolete as well.
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(emphasis added)
Here is Obama's response, which is being cited by the media as a binding pledge:
If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?
Yes No _
Comments (please limit to 250 words or less):
I have been a long-time advocate for public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. I introduced public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and am the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored Senator Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) bill to reform the presidential public financing system. In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.
PDF
It's clear, Obama pledged to pursue an agreement. Still, the spin cycle continues. Here's why: Obama just shook up the campaign financing landscape.
Exclusive: MoveOn To Close Its 527 In Response To Obama's Candidacy:
MoveOn, the advocacy group supporting Barack Obama, has decided to permanently shutter its 527 operation, partly in response to the Illinois Senator's insistence that such groups should not spend on his behalf during the general election, I've learned from the group's spokesperson.
MoveOn's decision, which will dramatically impact the way it raises money on Obama's behalf, is yet another sign of how rapidly Obama is taking control of the apparatus that's gearing up on his behalf.
By shuttering its 527, MoveOn is effectively killing its ability to raise money in huge chunks from labor unions, foundations, and big donors who would give over $5,000. The decision doesn't mean MoveOn will stop spending on Obama's behalf. Istead it will raise money exclusively with its political action committee, whose average donation is below $50 and will even be raising money with things like bake sales starting this weekend.
Obama's campaign is defining change:
Obama has not yet explicitly responded to McCain’s promise to end the permanent campaign. But the conduct of his campaign already suggests his answer. If the constitutional pathology is defined by governing taking on the tone and techniques of campaigning, that disease can be cured in a new way signaled by Obama’s new style of politics. For Obama, rather than governing taking on the tone of the campaign, the campaign can take on the tone of governing. If candidates campaign in a new way – it can be carried over into the governing phase in a manner that improves statecraft rather than undermines it. For examples, in opposing a gas tax holiday and speaking to the publics deliberative capacities in his explanation, in delivering speeches that offer complex articulations of the principles that underlie his policies (on race, on financial markets, on foreign policy, and on the economy), in calling for real, genuine Lincoln Douglas style debates (no moderator, press, sound bite questions, but rather sustained arguments and rebuttals), and most generally in calling for a new politics of reason over one marked by appeals to passion (like fear), Obama is solving the problem of the permanent campaign by letting the two processes continue to bleed into each other – but this time with the tone set by governing rather than by campaigning.
Everyone has been clamoring about campaign finance reform since John Kerry introduced the "Clean Money, Clean Elections Act" in 1997. Now that there is real impetus for reform to take hold, will McCain, the Washington establishment, the GOP and the media embrace it?
Forgive the multiple edits to the title, trying to shorten.