Posted on 07/12/2007 4:22:52 AM PDT by gridlock
WASHINGTON, July 11 About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Senator John McCain ducked off the Senate floor, entered the Republican cloakroom and took out his mobile phone. Just hours after accepting the resignation of his two top campaign aides, he was making a conference call to his top fund-raisers to urge them to keep up the fight.
The call, however, may only have exacerbated an already tough week for Mr. McCain. Senate ethics rules expressly forbid lawmakers to engage in campaign activities inside Senate facilities. If Mr. McCain solicited campaign contributions on a call from government property, that would be a violation of federal criminal law as well.
(snip)
Mr. McCain was well aware of the rules. Ten years ago he led Republican calls for an independent prosecutor to investigate accusations of violations of the same rules by Vice President Al Gore. Mr. McCain went on to make the episode a cornerstone of both his 2000 Republican primary campaign and his argument for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
(snip)
He has proven that he can run this kind of campaign, said Mr. Davis, who was Mr. McCains national campaign manager in 2000. So if anyone wonders is this is possible thats exactly what he did once before.
Back then, the need for campaign finance reform was one of Mr. McCains favorite themes, and he often mocked Mr. Gores argument that there was no controlling legal authority forbidding his fund-raising calls from another federal property, the White House.
The American people deserve a controlling ethical authority, Mr. McCain used to repeat on the campaign trail, as well as controlling legal authority.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A truck from the World's Largest Irony Mine...
...I think we are gonna need a bigger truck...
I want to assure you: I have no consideration of dropping out of the race, Mr. McCain saidRon Paul is saying the same thing. They both have about the same chance or winning. Zero.
McCain-Feingold and other rules are for peasants and challengers, not for the ruling elite.
This follows my new favorite theory, that all politicians must first neutralize their negatives. So the primary cause of a politician will always be the exact opposite of his major flaw.
Thus we have the following:
Bill Clinton campaigning on Health Care when he presided over the state with the highest infant and child mortality in the Country
Al Gore campaigning on environmental matters when his money all comes from Occidental Petroleum, one of the dirtiest Oil Companies around
Al Gore pretending to be intelligent when he is obviously a moron (a two-fer)
John F’n Kerry “Reporting for Duty” when his miltary record was an embarrassing joke
Hillary! supporting the War in Iraq when it is clear she has been trying to weaken the United States at every turn since her days as a Goldwater Girl
And John McCain - Mr. Keating Five - championing Campaign Finance Reform.
The list goes on and on.
“Rules are for thee, not for me”, eh Senator?
Fortunately, at the end of the day the peasants vote. Let's hope they have long memories.
Amen brother that truck won’t even begin to hold this load, maybe a fleet of thousands would make a dent.
Just when you think they have reached the lowest point the NYTs breaks out the dredge and mines a new channel.
You gotta believe Algore spit up his coffee through his nose while reading the paper this morning...
When Gore got caught doing this, he responded with the now famous line, “There is no controlling legal authority.” McCain should have said that.
I wonder how the NYT found out about this. Are they conducting illegal intercepts of cell phones?
Pining for the Fjords!
Schadenfreude
McCain is toast and has been toast for a long time. This story coming from the NY Slimes is really piling on. It’s hard to believe the likes of Kennedy, Clinton, Reid, Chuck the Schmuck don’t conduct campaign business in the Senate chamber.
Of course they do, but none of them has taken of the mantle of Mr. Campaign Finance Reform.
Normally I would pile on the NY Times for anti-'Pubbie bias, except that (a) McCain is one of their favorites, and (b) McCain deserves every bit of this.
He is getting no such free ride today, and it shows.
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