Posted on 12/19/2007 9:06:00 PM PST by tcrlaf
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) just announced that the Senate will not clear four new appointees for the Federal Election Commission, meaning the panel that acts as a watchdog on political campaigns cannot function during the critical election-year period.
Reid is blaming the White House for refusing to withdraw to allow a majority vote on the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky for a seat on the commission. Republicans want von Spakovsky approved as part of a slate of four FEC nominees or they will refuse to consider any of the nominees.
Von Spakovsky was recess appointed by President Bush to the FEC, but his term expires at the end of the year. Democrats have refused to allow his nomination to move forward, arguing that his actions while at the Justice Department disqualified him for the post. Bush, though has not backed down, and the matter has been at an impasse for the last four months.
Sens, Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) placed holds on von Spakovsky's nomination, meaning Republicans needed 60 votes to approve his nomination over Democratic objections.
Now, with the Senate moving toward adjournment until mid-January, Reid signalled that Democrats will not move any FEC nominations if they include von Spakovsky, meaning the commission will only have two of its required six members. Reid said he offered the GOP a straight majority vote on all the FEC nominees, including von Spakovsky, but the White House refused to accept that offer.
Reid said he will not relent on von Spakovsky, who has come under heavy criticism from civil-rights groups, and he blamed the White House and Republicans for the stalemate.
"If they do not, the responsibility for a defunct FEC willl rest solely on their shoulders," Reid said.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters today that Democrats are unfairly trying to block a GOP nominee to the FEC, which is overseen by a panel of three Democrats and three Republicans.
"The Democrats have picked their nominees and we've picked ours," McConnell said. "What we have here -- once again it happened with one of our nominees toward the end of the Clinton administration -- the Democrats trying to veto one of our nominees. That isn't going to happen. They're all four going to go together or none of them will be approved."
If the FEC is disabled, there is NO ONE to oversee the MASSIVE Democrat Voter Fraud we will be facing in 2008.
How convenient.
Dems figure this is fair payback for Rove stealing two elections ;-)
I like how this is worded. Reid refuses to allow a vote on FEC nominations and blames the one who made the nominations for the process not moving forward.
No wonder his Congress is enjoying the lowest approval numbers in history. What a boob!
I think it was just last year that the Clinton 2000 campaign finally got fined for taking illegal money.
The FEC doesn’t actually do anything, which is exactly what the demoncrats like. The states themselves will have to police the millions and millions (think I’m exaggerating?) of phony voters on their side.
And not a SINGLE member of the mainstream media is going to dare to call him on it...
Sad, isn’t it?
Now if a REPUBLICAN had done this, all we’d hear for WEEKS would be cries of “FASCIST!!” and “REICH-WING” from our liberal “friends” in the media....
Sure they do something. They fined both SWIFT BOAT VETS FOR TRUTH and MOVE ON hundreds of thousands of dollars for violating CFR law.
This was a warning to all groups that want to run ads during this upcoming election critical of politicians that they’ll be targeted by the government if they do so.
So much for the 1st Amendment.
The Democrats have the majority but they still do not believe that they would win in a vote on his nomination.
So much for “every vote counts”.
Vote fraud will only be half of the story. There was massive election violence and intimidation in 2004. Vandalism, election day attacks on GOP offices...
The DNC Brownshirts will be out in full force. Knock and Drag will again pressure people into going to the polls using hired thug labor.
But the MSM will be all over this discrimination. /Not.
What would be the actual results be in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Mass, upstate NY, MD, VA, Washington, Washington DC, OR, AZ, NM - if there were no inner city democrat vote fraud?
You forgot to add St. Louis, and Wisconsin. Moonbats were crowing today about OHIO, but they STILL won’t admit that many Democrats there have been CONVICTED of Vote Fraud, Voter Registration Fraud, and Recount Tampering...
>Sens, Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) placed holds on von Spakovsky’s nomination, meaning Republicans needed 60 votes to approve his nomination over Democratic objections.<
Obama? Can you say “Conflict of interest”?
The FEC is a toothless old whore doesn’t matter at all in preventing any kind of election or campaign finance fraud. It’s a complete waste of tax dollars as far as I’m concerned.
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