Financing an election.

McCain is in an odd spot with the FEC, and Dems are trying to hold his feet to the fire.

Crooks and Liars:

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Amazing. The DNC has to go to court to get McCain to abide by his word on public financing. The man who chalks up campaign finance reform as one of his accomplishments doesn’t want it to apply to him. FireDogLake has a petition to sign that will be delivered on Tuesday saying that McCain must abide by the law.

But what does the media chase down?

Crooks and Liars:

McCain’s Media back in action. Did Crowley take a John McCain press release and develop this segment based on their talking points? This clip is from last Friday.

John McCain is in violation of the FEC’s public financing laws because he has signed up for it, has received money from it, procured a loan to help his primary and then went over the limit. Read here for more details. Crowley could have told you that McCain wouldn’t have had the money to produce ads in New Hampshire to win that primary without the loan. We might be talking about the Mitt Romney nomination right now. And we need to look at the bank loan more closely. The DNC has filed a complaint about it to the FEC. Plus, Jane and the blogoshere have filed a complaint against McCain’s campaign as well with over 32,000 signatures being delivered already. Wouldn’t you think that we be part of her story? Nope. Instead she does a hit job on Obama who made no such commitment.

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She makes sure to frame it as if Obama is waffling out of it when McCain has his hands dirty in every way.

Remember, Obama only checked a survey box, but Candy doesn’t tell her audience that. I’ll repeat this again. John McCain actually agreed to public financing when his campaign was in trouble, borrowed money to keep it going before he won the nomination and now has spent well beyond the guidelines for which he received a stern letter from the FEC’s David Mason. Obama doesn’t need to opt out because he never signed on. I’m sure McCain was giving his staff high fives over Crowley’s report. A job well done. Full transcript below the fold.

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Yeah, continue that good work CNN. Keeping your eye on the ball. But it ain't just them.

AMERICAblog:

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Today, the editorial writers at the Washington Post are trying to bully Obama on the issue of campaign finance. They want Obama to cut a deal over public financing with John McCain. But as the Washington Post itself told us in February, McCain is already in serious trouble with the FEC over his efforts to scam the public financing system.

And, putting aside the legal niceties for a moment - John McCain has already announced that he's pulling out of the public finance system (albeit illegally) because he wants to raise more money, unhindered by those pesky campaign finance rules he used to promote. But now McCain is signaling that he might just go back into the system in the fall general election, mostly because he hasn't been able to raise a dime from the public as compared to Obama and Clinton. So, McCain opted in to the system when he thought he'd get more money that way, then opted out (illegally) when he "realized" he'd make more money on the outside, and now he may opt back in again because the public is refusing to give him the big bucks he expected. But Obama is the one who the Washington Post editorial board has a problem with. Right.

McCain's illegal actions should be the subject of repeated editorials from the Washington Post editorial board. But, they still live in the bizarro world where John McCain is a campaign finance champion. In reality, John McCain is a campaign finance criminal. Obama cannot trust McCain on campaign finance. Ever.