McCain nowhere to be found on new public financing legislation…

Salon.com published an interesting article today titled “How to fix campaign financing forever for $50.“

To be sure, the purpose of the article leaves a lot to be desired as it advocates a public financing plan in which the government would give every citizen $50 to anonymously donate to political candidates of their choosing.  (That’s just great, leave it to the folks at Salon.com to advocate a plan in which we tax the American people to fund federal campaigns.)

Anyway, if you can stomach getting past the ridiculousness of the plan, the article does make some accurate and interesting observations.  Not the least of which is noting Sen. John McCain’s absence on new legislation to broaden the presidential public financing system.   

The legislation is being sponsored by McCain’s old pals, Senator Russ Feingold and Representatives Christopher Shays and Martin Meehan.  But no McCain — nope, the Senate’s “chief campaign finance reformer” is running for President.  And, despite sponsoring similar if not identical legislation in the past, McCain seems to have abandoned his distorted campaign finance principles as he seeks to raise all the “special interest money” he can to support his bid for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. 

In fact, this go around, the article notes that McCain says he is not even familiar with Feingold’s idea.   (Right — we guess Sen. McCain also has a bridge in Brooklyn to sell us real cheap!)

The article states…

“This week Sen. Russell Feingold… offered a plan that would modestly tweak the current system, increasing some public funding here and eliminating some limits there. The plan’s prospects look uncertain. His former co-conspirator in reform, John McCain, says he’s not even familiar with Feingold’s idea, perhaps because as a presidential candidate he now spends much of his time asking rich people for money.”

Feingold’s legislation should not pass.  It is bad public policy.  But McCain’s absence on the legislation, coupled with his refusal to ”talk straight” with the American people about whether he will campaign for the GOP nomination within the limitations of the public financing system, is very telling. 

Specifically, it tells us that with his own political ambitions at stake, McCain doesn’t care to abide by speech restrictions similar to those he seeks to impose on the American people.

Sign the ‘$traight Talk?’ Petition…

A quick check this morning revealed that the “$traight Talk?” petition is getting a great response.

But we need more signatures. 

If you haven’t already done so, sign the online petition here.

Apparently John McCain missed the memo…

As James Bopp, Jr., General Counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech and one of the foremost experts on election law in this country, was kind enough to point out, the Republican National Committee unanimously passed a resolution at its winter meeting in January opposing any further regulation of citizens’ groups, including ‘527′ organizations.

It would seem that McCain missed that memo — Republicans are against muzzling political speech.

Bopp was the chief sponsor of that resolution, which is posted below…

McCain to Appear on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday. Five questions Stephanopoulos should ask the Presidential hopeful…

The website of ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos tells us Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and Sen. Chuck Hagel will be joining George this Sunday, February 4th.

While the interview will focus on President Bush’s plan for a troop surge in Iraq, below are five questions Stephanopoulos should ask the Senate’s “chief campaign finance reformer” while he has him in front of the cameras…

1)  As a frontrunner for the 2008 Republican nomination for President, will you, Senator McCain, campaign within the presidential public financing system or is it your intention to abandon that system in favor of more campaign dollars?  (Note: Stephanopoulos has asked McCain a similar question before.  The Senator dodged the question.)

2)  Senator McCain, as you seek the portray yourself as the conservative candidate, why on earth do you plan to introduce legislation in the 110th Congress to “further clamp down on independent ‘527′ groups?”  In other words, with conservatives almost unanimously opposed to your dubious campaign finance “reform” agenda, why would you sponsor legislation to further muzzle political speech?

3)  If it is your intention to abandon the limitations of the public financing system as you seek the GOP nomination, isn’t that hypocritical?  You are responsible for the passage of the McCain-Feingold bill, widely considered one of the greatest legislative assaults on the free speech and association rights of the American people ever passed by Congress. Now, you are vowing to further muzzle political speech in the 110th Congress.  Why do you seek to muzzle everyone’s voice but your own?

McCain’s answer to public financing question may be made for him…

The New York Daily News today reported that John McCain “has less than half a million bucks in his campaign account.”

 The story ran under the headline, “McCain war chest running on empty”

The report states…

“Between Nov. 15 and Dec. 31, McCain (R-Ariz.) raised $660,000 and raided $1 million from his Senate reelection account to his presidential fund, but he spent more than $1.2 million.”

At this rate, he may be forced (of course against his will) into the presidential public financing system as he seeks the GOP nomination.  Especially considering where his competitors stand.

Read on…

‘Remember when John McCain was decrying the corrupting influence of big money in our elections?’

Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent for The Washington Times, has a great column today titled, “Big checks fill campaign coffers.”

In the column, Lambro points out that…

“[S]ince McCain and his band of reformers passed the stringent new law [McCain-Feingold], here’s what happened: The amount of contributions an individual can give to each candidate per election has jumped from $1,000 to $2,300; all of that so-called big money in the past has grown bigger, with presidential candidates talking about raising $100 million this year alone to prepare for the 2008 primaries; and McCain and some of his fellow reformers say they doubt they’ll abide by the limits in the presidential public-financing system they enacted into law.”

Lambro goes further in correctly pointing to McCain’s hypocrisy on the campaign finance issue…

“Such are the unintended consequences of hyperventilating reformers who promise that if we just exert the power of the state to prevent people from freely giving to whomever they wish, we can take big money out of our elections. But we now find it’s very hard for these lawmakers to live by the rules they want to impose on the rest of us.” [emphasis ours]  

Indeed, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.  As a matter of fact, that is exactly what we have been saying!

‘$traight Talk’ Petition is now live…

The “$traight Talk” petition is now live.  To sign the petition urging John McCain to “talk straight” with the American people on whether he will abide by the Presidential Public Financing system as he seeks the 2008 GOP nomination, click here.