Last week, in an effort coordinated by Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog and Reverend Lennox Yearwood delivered 32,000 signatures to the FEC, cosigning the complaint filed last Thursday against John McCain and his campaign. It took three reams of paper and 1,400 pages to print it all out. The entire post is HERE.
The gist of the complaint is that John Sidney McCain III opted in to the campaign finance program that he helped reform and chose to receive matching federal funds. The limit on money he could spend under the law is $54 million for the primaries.
After he became the front runner in the Republican race, he decided that he needed more money and continued fund raising above the limit, including using the FEC funding as collateral for a $4 million loan.
The MSM is widely mis-reporting that McCain didn't receive federal funds, so he is choosing to opt out of the plan. Problem is, it isn't for him to decide. The FEC needs to make a ruling on the matter.
Currently the FEC lacks a quorum because of a standoff between Congress and the President on who to approve for the board. The president (of course) wants to put another lackey in place who would mindlessly do Bush's bidding, which would certainly include a vote against holding McCain to the law he helped write.
The MSM is ignoring this story, but the online effort continues. Even if the FEC refuses to rule on the complaint before the new administration is in power, we can help make this a significant campaign issue if we keep the pressure on. This story is a simple case of a senator breaking the law he helped enact. Usually the media is all over a story like this, except this time there is a lot of resistance to it for some reason.
We need to keep the pressure on. Go over to FDL and sign this petition. The full text of the complaint is HERE. Jane already has over 34,000 signatures, and maybe when they hit 50,000 or 100,000, the MSM will finally take notice.
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