Bad Deeds for 2-26-2008

John McCain Want to “Cut and Run” from public campaign finance. McCain used the promise of public funds as collateral to help secure a private loan. Once a candidate uses actual public funds in this manner, they have used those dollars, thus locking them into the program. This is key, not only in that it seems to bind him to the program but also in that McCain showed a clear willingness to capitalize on voluntary taxpayer money in order to help him raise more funds from special interest lobbyists (some of whom are at the upper echelons of his campaign staff).

Now that McCain is in the program and hasn’t been certified to pull out — an act that requires a vote of the FEC — it seems that he may have already gone over the spending limit in violation of the law. As of the last campaign finance filing deadline, McCain was already coming dangerously close to the $54 million threshold, and in the weeks since he might have already passed it.

John McCain Withheld Abramoff E-mail – On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation. In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff’s activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff’s influence peddling scheme. Despite the implications of the information, McCain and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee sat on the controversial portion of the email. According to an official familiar with the investigation, McCain also subsequently refused to make the email public after the report was released.

The Myth Mess of the Surge – In Iraq, it’s not so much the troops as it is the money.

Afghanistan Ain’t That Great Either

Quote From the World’s Most Dangerous Hunter – “It will be necessary for us to be a nation of men, and not laws.” –Vice President Dick Cheney

Senator McCain Gets a Zero – Two weeks ago John McCain was the only Senator to duck a crucial vote on the future of clean energy in America — dooming to failure the measure that would have helped make renewable energy more affordable and accessible. Now it turns out this missed vote is part of a pattern.

Last week, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) released the 2007 National Environmental Scorecard giving Senator McCain a score of ZERO. According to the scorecard, McCain was the only member of Congress to skip all 15 crucial environmental votes scored by LCV.

John Ashcroft Gets a Multi-Million Dollar Non-Completive Contract From His Former Subordinate in the Justice Department – John Ashcroft is considered a key witness in the inquiry into lucrative federal monitoring contracts awarded by federal prosecutors to hand-picked monitors to oversee deferred prosecutions. The House hearing was prompted, in part, by complaints from two New Jersey congressmen after Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, awarded a contract said to be worth $27 million or more to Ashcroft to monitor a medical device maker that had entered a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors. Christie was once Ashcroft’s subordinate. Ashcroft’s Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group LLC, stands to make from $27 million to $52 million over 18 months.

How John McCain Saved Paxson Communications Hint: It has something to do with money and a lobbyist.

Oh-oh!

Regards,

Jim