Progress Now Action

Never more...or is it one more time before the Statue of Liberty is beheaded?  What else can one make of this assault on the Constitution and the rule of law?  Mr. Bush follows the dictum of Joseph Stalin"s "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

As close followers of our democracy and election process has shown that there is an impasse with the seating of new FEC members due to the fact that Mr. Bush wants to seat Mr. Hans von Spakovsky.  Paul Kiel, Talkingpointsmemo.com, reporter writes:

It is because of that record -- one of ignoring, marginalizing, and intimidating career lawyers in order to institute restrictive voting laws all over the country, a pattern amounting to "institutional sabotage" as one former career attorney there put it -- that Senate Democrats (Barack Obama and Russ Feingold in particular) opposed his nomination to the Federal Election Commission.

In other words, Hans von Spakovsky is utilizing methods to suppress voters that is against the historic mission of the Voting Rights Division in the Department of Justice of increasing access to voting for all citizens.

What is happening now is that there is not enough members of the FEC to take any action(s) whatsoever.  This includes the fact that Mr. McCain is violating election laws, including his own McCain-Feingold law of campaign financing limits.  But, Mr. Bush has just sent Congress a revised list of nominees to fill out the FEC board.  

It is important to let the media and your Senator know that this "compromise" by Mr. Bush is nothing of the sort.  He has nominated the vote suppressor Hans von Sakovsky again.  What is telling is that he has not renominated David Mason.  Paul Kiel continues:

Mason is one of the only two seated commissioners, and it just so happens that he's been creating a whole lot of trouble for John McCain lately...

In February, the McCain campaign notified the FEC that it was withdrawing from the public financing system for the primary. Although McCain had once opted in, his campaign said that it had never received public funds and so could opt out. The move meant that McCain would not be bound by the $54 million spending limit for the system.

But Mason balked. McCain couldn't just opt out -- the FEC had to approve his request before he could. And Mason also indicated that a tricky bank loan might mean that McCain had locked himself in to the system...

And now Mason is getting the boot.

If the compromise means that Republicans agree to a seperated vote for commissioners then von Spakosky will be out for good.  But getting rid of Dave Mason can only be good for Mr. McCain because it will forestall any action on the criminal actions by his campaign.

I would point out that Mr. McCain may have a new headache.  Judicial Watch has filed a suit about Mr. McCains fundraiser held on a foreign nation's soil- Britain.  Klaus Marre, TheHill.com, reports:

Judicial Watch argues that providing a venue for the event free of charge was an illegal in-kind contribution from two foreign nationals — Lord Rothschild OM GBE and The Honorable Nathaniel Rothschild.

“While it is, as yet, unclear how much money was raised during the luncheon, had the venue not been donated to the McCain campaign, the net profit from the event would have been significantly reduced,” the group said in a statement.

What does this mean?  Is it going to be that foreign investors in Mr. McCain's campaign will have influence on foreign policies that impact their respective countries? 

Mr. McCain has a lot of serious questions to answer to the American people for when he is willing to hold fundraisers on foreign soil for his campaign.