Tom Delay’s Attorney Nominated to FEC to Help McCain

I have decided that I do not want to talk about Clinton anymore.  It is clear that this election is over and Obama has won.  I am tired of the continued circular arguments and I want to start the focus on McCain.  I found an interesting little article about the new appointee to the FEC Commission.  He has a sorrid little past-including Tom Delay and our favorite-Jack Abramoff  Our two most favored criminals.

I think that Clinton will stick around for a while longer, do I like it? NO.  But she can and probably will.  

I however think it is more important to focus on McShameful and his illegal campaign.  It is now clear that the Bush Administration really likes McInsane and is stacking the deck in favor or McSame.  We all know about the issues involved with McCain’s financing and how he said he was for public financing before he was against.  How he took the money and signed up for it then said not so fast-I am the now the nominee.

Well, Democracy 21 took issue with this and filed a complaint, as they should have.  

In a letter to Senator McCain earlier this year, Commissioner Mason had raised questions about McCain’s request to withdraw from the presidential primary public financing system and about a loan that Senator McCain’s campaign took out and the collateral provided for the loan,” Wertheimer said.

President Bush has started meddling with the 2008 election by withdrawing the nomination of David Mason, FEC committee member, that questioned McCain’s illegal campaign finance activities, and appointing Don McGahn.  These actions by President Bush have been called illegal-imagine that.

“The White House action taken yesterday to rig any FEC enforcement decision concerning campaign finance questions that have been raised regarding the presumptive Republican nominee for President, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), constitutes political obstruction of justice,” according to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer

Sound familiar?  Wertheimer thinks so:

“The White House action taken to dispose of Mason was eerily reminiscent of earlier actions taken by the White House and the Justice Department to dispose of U.S. Attorneys whose enforcement actions or inactions they disagreed with,” Wertheimer stated

So who will replace Mr Mason?  Hmmm.  Remember that guy down in Texas-not Bush, the other one…Delay.  How about appointing his lawyer, he did such a fine job in protecting him from Jack Abramoff.

In nominating Don McGahn to replace David Mason on the FEC, the White House and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have chosen an individual whose past record shows disdain for the FEC and little interest in the proper enforcement of campaign finance laws.

McGahn is counsel to the NRCC. He previously served as a campaign finance and ethics lawyer for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and as a member of DeLay’s legal team, representing him in legal and ethics issues regarding the Jack Abramoff affair.

How does this guy fit into this position?  He tried to circumvent the McCain Feingold law banning soft money.  So do you think this might have some implications???

McGahn was the NRCC’s counsel in October 2002, when the NRCC initiated a scheme to circumvent the new McCain-Feingold law banning soft money in federal elections, just weeks before the law was to take effect.

The scheme involved the NRCC transferring $1 million in soft money to the Leadership Forum, a surrogate group set up by House Republican leaders to spend soft money on the 2004 House races. The $1 million was later returned by the Leadership Forum to the NRCC after the scheme became a public issue.

So how does this man feel about the position that he is about to acquire?

“The Commission is nothing more than Congress’ constitutional power to be the final judge in its own elections. That is where it comes from, the creation of House and Senate. So because of that, how independent can you be? When with the stroke of a pen, you’re out of business tomorrow. It’s not really like other agencies. It’s not an executive branch agency. You have the President who nominates and the Senate confirm, the President appoints. But it’s not like other agencies because you have the charge of the fox guarding the hen-house. You gonna appoint your guys to make sure you are taken care of. The original intent was for it to be a glorified Congressional committee. That’s the way I see it. But over time it has got more independent and more money. The flip side is that you have a certain Senator who wants their guy on the Commission, just cos they want them. You can’t really stop that but that doesn’t really get you the most qualified person either.”

Is he one that is most qualified or is he part of the fox guarding the hen house crowd?

Oh yeah, McGahn feels that Delay did nothing wrong-of course and the FEC was basically using an outdated law to go after Delay.

When the FEC conducted an audit of Delay’s Leadership PAC, ARMPAC, and found that the PAC had improperly spent more than $200,000 in soft money in the 2002 elections and failed to report more than $300,000 it owed to vendors, McGahn, ARMPAC’s lawyer, denigrated the FEC audit and finding, describing it as, “An esoteric, minutiae question about overhead ratios that has been concocted by the FEC, that is no longer the law.”

So, I think that we should start asking a lot of questions about McCain’s financing and find out if this Don McGahn is going to be approved for this position.  It seems as if McCain has broken a law with his campaign financing, yet with the “fox guarding the hen-house” he might actually get away with it.

http://newsblaze.com/story/2008050713131200016.pnw/newsblaze/POLITICS/Politics.html source

I posted this over at DKos and it fell off of the screen.  Thought I would give it another chance.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/8/85353/29269/951/511619