Obama's Chicago-style Politics (FEC fiasco)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Posted by: Patrick Ruffini at 3:53 PM

Howard Dean is upset that John McCain wants out from public matching funds for the primary. So much so that's he's filed a complaint with the FEC.

Very well. If that's how he really feels about it, he'll tell Senate Democrats to give up their extraordinary block against the President's FEC nominees -- a block that is preventing the FEC from holding a pro-forma vote to allow McCain out of the system.

And who put the hold on Hans Von Spakovsky, one of the FEC nominees in limbo?

Barack Obama.

(In fact, this left-wing blogger asserts that Obama is THE key reason there is no working FEC right now.)

This is extraordinary. Obama is using his Senate office to limit his likely November opponent's spending to $9 million between now and the convention. Incidentally, Obama's actions would have been responsible for cutting John Edwards off at the knees had he stayed in the race and required an infusion of federal funds.

The FEC must vote to approve any such transfers, and partly because of the Obama-led block, it can't. That also means John McCain hasn't seen any Federal money yet. I don't see how you can be in a federal matching funds system and not receive any matching funds.

Is this "change we can believe in" or just Chicago-style politics?