McCain and the sleaze factor

I think it's important to restate in plain English what John McCain did wrong when he held out public money to secure a private campaign loan.

Did McCain's loan deal break laws or FEC rules? Does it lock McCain into the public system until the primary? I'm going to leave those arguments to the lawyers.

I'm asking whether McCain's campaign finance scheme is consistent with the image of moral rectitude he so confidently projects.

McCain applied for public financing back when his campaign was struggling. When his fortunes improved and spending limits became inconvenient, McCain wanted out. Ironically, a champion of campaign finance reform couldn't live with his own system.

By this point, the FEC had already approved $5.8 million in matching funds for him, but the money hadn't changed hands yet. This is an important point because once a candidate accepts public money, s/he can no longer opt out of the program.

So, McCain still had time for a quasi-honorable bailout, if he had been willing to make a clean break and proceed at his own risk--but he wasn't willing to forgo the safety net.

If McCain refused matching funds, he would need big loans. Back in December, when the loan deal was hatched, it wasn't clear that McCain was going to win.

Banks aren't stupid. They won't lend you millions of dollars without some assurance that you'll pay them back. So, the bank had a legitimate concern: How would McCain pay back the loan if his primary campaign imploded?

Here's how the McCain team reassured the bank that they were good for the money:

The plan was to opt out and fund raise like hell. If that worked out, great. But if they started losing, they promised to opt back into the public system. Then, they'd take that $5.8 million the government had already promised them, and use it to repay the bank.

McCain's deal had very serious political and ethical implications. If worse had come to worst, he would have been contractually obliged to stay in a hopeless race, just to get his hands on those matching funds.  An ethical candidate weighs many factors when deciding whether to stay in a losing race, including the best interests of country, party, and family. McCain was willing to give final say to the bank.

McCain was all for public financing when his campaign needed public assistance. When the attendant restrictions became inconvenient, he wanted out. That's a little embarrassing for a self-styled ethics crusader, but it's understandable given the exigencies of politics.

But instead of making a good faith decision to set out on his own, at his own risk, McCain fell back on the promise of government money to get a private loan.

He didn't risk his own house or any of his considerable personal wealth. No, he put up our money as security for his gamble.

John McCain got that loan by holding out the promise of a public bailout. 

McCain was gambling with public money to secure debt he incurred when he decided to ditch public financing! How's that for integrity?

Comments

[The Phantom]

Ben

If McCain had started his campaign with a fundraiser at the home of David Duke. And if he retained a cordial relationship with Duke over the years...you telling me that you would be fine with that?

The Weathermen actually killed people..through their own incompetence, one of their own people. The bombs they set could have killed many more.

This was an extremely dangerous movement. If the report is true, its not Six Degrees, it is One Degree of Separation. Obama to Ayers. No middleman there.

[Dock Miles]

This from somebody who complains about hijacking threads.

This troglodyte is a prominent right-wing thinker on your thread, Lindsay? It's a real failure. There's much better out there.

[cfrost]

An Obama – Weathermen connection? Huh? So what? Around that time I smoked dope and drank beer on several occasions with Joe “The Animal” Barboza, a mob goon then in the witness protection program in California. So far no one has accused me of having mafia ties.

[Dock Miles]

So how have you benefited from those mafia ties already?

[cfrost]

"So how have you benefited from those mafia ties already?"

If only it were so. I'm almost certain that the guy who introduced me to Barboza, one Stan Daley, burglarized my house and took a couple of rifles my gunsmith grandfather made. I guess I get the last laugh though; Stan was convicted twice on bank robbery charges after getting in a shootout with the cops, and last I heard was in San Quentin. I kind of hung out with the wrong crowd in high school. Obama says he smoked dope around that time, but I'm guessing it was with more "normal" people.

[milo]

Oh, this is small potatoes. Clinton, who I supported, had a shady commodities trading firm hand her 100k in "trading profits" that were in actuality allocated trades. (I won't bother to explan the mechanics of it all, you people are too hopelessly stupid). All politicians are more or less dirty, and McCain has stuck his neck out enough times to deserve some (limited) credit for decency. But man I will laugh my ss off when you Americans elect Obama. he will be a disaster, nearly of W proportions : )

[shrimplate]

This time he shows up late (probably having waited for his hangover to subside,) but with the same vile rancor. Laughter, you see, is how he responds to the tragic destruction of a populaous and once-great country. Psychopath.

McCain portrays himself as a "straight talker." He isn't. That's the story.

Unfortunately, when reality conflicts with imagery many Americans, half of whom are functionally illiterate, will go with the fantasy version. Reagan, himself cripplingly illiterate, proved that over and over.

[parse]

Did McCain's loan deal break laws or FEC rules? Does it lock McCain into the public system until the primary?

Lindsay, I think what you really mean to ask is whether it locks McCain into the public system through the primary.

[Eric Jaffa]

John Amato writes:
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You remember Sinclair Broadcasting—the wonderful company that planned to air the hit job on John Kerry called “Stolen Honors.” Here’s the key passage of the piece though.

For its part, Glencairn appeared to have been getting little support in Congress until it retained Ms. Iseman in 1998.

Edwin Edwards, who was the president of the company at the time, said in a recent interview that after retaining Ms. Iseman, he was able to get heard by Mr. McCain.

“We were pounding the pavement in Washington,” Mr. Edwards said. “We recruited help from as many people as we could. We knocked on every door just trying to get support.

So Glencairn was getting nowhere until Vicki was able to get McCain’s attention. I wonder how she did that?
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[Steve]

Speaking of sleaze, I rushed back to this website when I heard Lindsay had done a layout in homage to MM's final nude shoot. Imagine my disappointment when I learned it was Linday Lohan.
Sigh!

[Rob]

McCain took out a loan using his access to public financing as collateral which would be accessed upon default of the loan.
If he defaulted on the loan that would have meant the wheels had come off his campaign and he was flat broke with no other means of raising money.
Though he might have to make a show of "good faith" campaigning after accepting the public funds he would essentially take the money, pay off the loan and close up shop.
Public funds, taxpayer money, would be used as a bailout for a failed politician.
Are we getting near Keating 5 territory or was this the original intent of the public financing legislation?
Lucky for McCain that his campaign is succeeding and all this remains hypothetical and, at best marginally unethical.

[mudkitty]

McCain practically admits his non-election is a forgone conclusion.