National Review’s Campaign Spot Blog: Team McCain Pushes Back Against Dean
By Jim Geraghty
The McCain camp held a conference call with Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker, Campaign Manager Rick Davis, and Trevor Potter, former FEC Chairman and John McCain 2008 General Counsel.
[By the way, how solid is the ground McCain is on when the guy making sure his FEC filings are on the up-and-up used to run the FEC?]
I joined in progress, and am fairly certain these comments were from Potter: "The bank was very clear on that yesterday, saying that they never recieved any collateral from us in the form of certificates from the matching funds program. It was clear that if any loan occurred, that no collateral in that form."
Q: Would have McCain have been able to get the loan without the possibility of matching funds?
Potter: "It's a hypothetical. We won't know. It's a question for what's inside the banker's brain, rather than inside our brain. We said, 'we are likely to withdraw from the system... if we can financially withdraw from that system, we will. The bank knew that was a possibility."
Rick Davis: "The way we read that wasn't a commitment for collateral. They're a bank, they're not in the business of running campaigns. They wanted to know 'what happens if.'"
Potter: "They had loaned us the money based on our projections of income and expenses. If we had put up the matching funds as collateral, we could have gotten a larger loan, probably twice the size."
Rick Davis: "We're not dealing with a vulnerability of law or ethics, we're dealing with a political issue. That's why I'm on this call - if was an issue of law, I would defer to Trevor. Obama started this attack, saying we were run by lobbyists. I would dare say that they have as many lobbyists on their campaign as we do. Then we had this hypocritical comment by Dean. We're happy to debate ethical standards and commitment to reform all day long."
Davis points out that McCain pushed for CFR after it had failed nine times. Once he was chair of the Indian Affairs Committee, he held hearings on Jack Abramoff. He went after Boeing on a procurement scandal in the defense budget.
"We hear a lot about change, but we see few people willing to spend their own political capital on actually changing things."
By Jim Geraghty
The McCain camp held a conference call with Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker, Campaign Manager Rick Davis, and Trevor Potter, former FEC Chairman and John McCain 2008 General Counsel.
[By the way, how solid is the ground McCain is on when the guy making sure his FEC filings are on the up-and-up used to run the FEC?]
I joined in progress, and am fairly certain these comments were from Potter: "The bank was very clear on that yesterday, saying that they never recieved any collateral from us in the form of certificates from the matching funds program. It was clear that if any loan occurred, that no collateral in that form."
"The law does not establish any requirement that the FEC vote to
allow someone out... We don't object to the commission voting, and they're
welcome to do that. But we don't believe that it is required as a matter of
law."
Q: Would have McCain have been able to get the loan without the possibility of matching funds?
Potter: "It's a hypothetical. We won't know. It's a question for what's inside the banker's brain, rather than inside our brain. We said, 'we are likely to withdraw from the system... if we can financially withdraw from that system, we will. The bank knew that was a possibility."
Rick Davis: "The way we read that wasn't a commitment for collateral. They're a bank, they're not in the business of running campaigns. They wanted to know 'what happens if.'"
Potter: "They had loaned us the money based on our projections of income and expenses. If we had put up the matching funds as collateral, we could have gotten a larger loan, probably twice the size."
Rick Davis: "We're not dealing with a vulnerability of law or ethics, we're dealing with a political issue. That's why I'm on this call - if was an issue of law, I would defer to Trevor. Obama started this attack, saying we were run by lobbyists. I would dare say that they have as many lobbyists on their campaign as we do. Then we had this hypocritical comment by Dean. We're happy to debate ethical standards and commitment to reform all day long."
Davis points out that McCain pushed for CFR after it had failed nine times. Once he was chair of the Indian Affairs Committee, he held hearings on Jack Abramoff. He went after Boeing on a procurement scandal in the defense budget.
"We hear a lot about change, but we see few people willing to spend their own political capital on actually changing things."
Townhall Blog: McCain Team On DNC Attacks
By Matt Lewis
Responding to DNC attacks, the McCain campaign hosted a reporter conference call this afternoon.
The call included Jill Hazelbaker, Communications Director, Rick Davis, Campaign Manager, and Trevor Potter, Former FEC Chairman and John McCain 2008 General Counsel.
McCain's team made the point that McCain is essentially doing the same thing Howard Dean did in 2003, when he withdrew from the matching funds system. As you may recall, Dean decided to forgo the matching funds based on an online vote of his supporters. Davis scolded the media for buying the Democrat's argument:
"I think you guys totally took the debate from Howard Dean and totally got sucked into a debate that he'd know something about ..."
Potter argued the Supreme Court has concluded that public financing is voluntary, and as such, candidates have a constitutional right to withdraw from the program. Refuting Dean's argument (that it was okay for him to opt out of the system because the FEC voted to allow him out of the system), Potter pointed out that the FEC could not possibly vote to allow McCain out of the financing -- even if they wanted to -- because there are four vacancies, thus denying them a quorum. (Guess who is blocking confirmation of one of the FEC appointees?)
Potter says that simply by sending the FEC Chairman a letter on February 6, saying that he wants out of the system, McCain was released.
Putting aside the legal argument that both McCain and Obama are making, I think it's obvious to anyone paying attention that Howard Dean is attempting to pull off a dirty trick that would result in McCain not having a fair chance to compete.
The fact that Dean, himself, did the same thing makes it all the
more hypocritical. And the fact that Dean argues that it was okay for him --
because the FEC voted to allow him to opt out -- while knowing the FEC cannot
meet to vote to allow McCain out, should they want to -- makes this look
politically expedient, and too cute by half.
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