Thank You Senator John McCain!

In October 2006, then President Bush gave $12M to the RNC.  Since the RNC is still in debt $10.9M which explains all the phone calls, email, and snail mail from the RNC asking for money all the while the Chair is talking about great fundraising.  How much debt was incurred due to special Congressional elections and the recall elections in WI?  Not one dime should be spent on anything but paying down the debt.  Wonder if they are explaining to to donors that they are still in debt?  Never have to me or anyone I know.  Took the media to out the RNC for still being in debt.

Bet the RNC Chair and his Finance Committee were salivating over McCain's money sitting in the political fund untouched.  Payback is sweet for the way the RNC has treated McCain over the years.  I have new found respect for Senator McCain that the money is going to help education in Arizona not buy negative campaign ads or retire debt that the RNC keeps running up.  Sure glad the RNC is not in charge of Government or we could be in worse shape.

What happens if we don't pay our utility bills?  Our electricity gets shut off.  Why is the RNC still this much in debt and spending any money except retiring the debt?  Forgot that the RNC and DNC operate differently that you and me.  They run up huge bills and keep right on spending.  RNC keeps turning out ads, etc. but they owe almost $11M -- why don't they ask Romney for some of his petty cash to retire their debt since
Romney is fundraising now -- received an invite which made me laugh.  I am going to a fundraiser for a very  person who used 'scorched earth' against the Texas Governor.  Not happening.

Along with a lot of people, having trouble seeing the difference between the DNC and the RNC today which is sad for this lifelong Republican.  What I have been witnessing for sometime out of the RNC especially since 2000 leaves a lot to be desired.  The bias though this election was the worst ever along with their supposition that all of us are going to follow along like little lemmings to support Romney and donate.

I will follow the lead of Senator McCain and donate to the university here for their scholarship fund instead of to the Presidential campaign of Mitt Romney who has money to burn after only paying 15% in income tax as one of the 500 privileged few.  I do not normally use class warfare but paying 15% in income tax as one of only 500 did it for me or spending well over $50M of his own money in 2008 to run for President makes one draw the line.  If you cannot get small contributions, you are in trouble because those millionaires who contribute to Romney still only have one vote the same as any of us.

Thank you Senator McCain for doing something worthwhile with the excess campaign donations.  It will do 100% more good then paying down the RNC debt so they can go in debt again.

Excess McCain campaign cash goes to charity
Donations not put toward 2012 race
By Luke Rosiak-
The Washington Times Wednesday, April 11, 2012 

The dormant 2008 presidential apparatus of John McCain this year transferred nearly $9 million in old donations to an educational charity run by three major political supporters that bears the Arizona senator’s name, filings showed Tuesday. 

The big-money move stands in contrast to President George W. Bush, who found himself in a nearly identical financial position but gave the millions instead to the Republican National Committee. Party committees are a typical destination for excess political cash, and the money would have dramatically bolstered the RNC’s position as the chief financial resource of the party’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney. 

The money was collected from Republican donors in 2007 and 2008 to support the party’s nominee for the nation’s highest office when Mr. McCain ran alongside then-Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. 

The $9 million in leftover funds was transferred to the McCain Institute Foundation in two disbursements in February and March, according to a quarterly filing Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. 

The institute “will benefit the Arizona State University Foundation. The McCain Institute Foundation and ASU are working together to build a nonprofit education and research center focused on world affairs,” Brian Rogers, Mr. McCain’s communications director, wrote in an email. 

The three trustees who will administer the charity were all “bundlers” who brought major money to the McCain political campaign, records show. 

The charity’s lead trustee, Florida-based manufacturing executive F. Philip Handy, raised from $100,000 to $250,000 for the presidential bid. He once served as chairman of that state’s Board of Education. William Post, a financier who serves as chairman of the ASU Foundation’s board, raised the same amount. The third trustee, Illinois lawyer William Richardson, raised from $50,000 to $100,000. 

According to an incorporation document, the money is to be used for the “McCain Institute for International Leadership to be established by Arizona State University; and to hold … materials arising from Senator John S. McCain III’s long history of public service … as well as important collections of his personal family records.” 

By comparison, the equivalent fund of Mr. Bush, who won his second term as president in 2004, gave its remaining $12 million to the RNC in October 2006 — money needed to fight back against a bruising Democratic tide in the House and Senate the next month. Mr. Bush’s campaign spent $195,000 to support a library to house his important papers. 

ASU spokesman Skip Derra said any talks with the university about establishing an institute don’t appear to be very far along. “I’ve done some checking and I haven’t readily found anything about any McCain Institute,” he said. ASU Foundation officials did not reply to requests for comment. 

“The McCain Institute Foundation is governed by outside and independent trustees, and is legally bound to use the transferred funds exclusively for public charitable purposes in association with Arizona State University,” Mr. Rogers said. 

Transferring the funds to the RNC would have allowed the committee to pay off nearly all of its $10.9 million in debt — a heavy burden it carries as it prepares for general election mode. (The RNC had $27 million in the bank at the beginning of March.) The Republican and Democratic national party committees typically function as the piggy banks for their presidential nominees.
This weekend, Mr. Romney and the RNC established a joint fundraising committee, a sign they already are effectively consolidating their bank accounts. 

An RNC official did not acknowledge any slight to the committee or to the former Massachusetts governor. 

“This is McCain’s money to do what he pleases with,” spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski wrote in an email. 

Excerpt:  Read More at the Washington Times