PRESS PATTERNS
McCain and the NC GOP Ad [Greg Pollowitz]
One aspect of the MSM coverage of McCain and the NC GOP ad featuring Reverend Wright is the complete lack of any discussion on how McCain's influence on the NC GOP might constitute a violation of campaign finance reform laws.
Here's McCain from today:
“I cannot enforce my will [but] I can make it clear to them that I will have no part of it.”
What Senator McCain is getting at is that he cannot, by law, tell the good people of North Carolina what to do. If he does, he opens himself up to a charge of coordinating with independent groups in violation of current campaign finance law. Howard Dean, however, seems to be encouraging Senator McCain to break the law and coordinate with the NC GOP:
Dean: McCain Needs to Show Real Leadership on North Carolina Ad
Washington, DC - According to reports, the chair of the state Republican Party in North Carolina is planning to move forward with its plans to air its racially divisive campaign ad despite John McCain's emailed complaints. While the McCain campaign made a show of protesting the ad, McCain made no mention of the fact that key officials in the North Carolina GOP are members of McCain's state steering committee and McCain donors.
Nor did he mention the fact that the state chair who is bucking his leadership is a member of the arrangements committee of the Republican National Convention. Given his ties to state Republican leaders, if McCain is serious about making sure this ad never airs, he should have no trouble making it happen. If not, McCain should return their contributions, remove them from his campaign committees, and strip the state chair from her role on the GOP's convention committee.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following statement calling on McCain to exercise real leadership and pull the plug on this ad:
"This is a test of leadership for John McCain. If he can't pick up the phone and make members of his own party stop airing a television ad he claims to oppose, how can he lead our country through an economic crisis or the war in Iraq? After shifting his positions on gun control, immigration and tax cuts throughout this campaign, McCain should not equivocate on this issue. Making a show of releasing your emails to the press is not leadership. If he is serious, he will get this ad pulled."
Odd behavior from Chairman Dean as he's the one who has a lawsuit against Senator McCain accusing him of breaking campaign finance laws as it relates to McCain's decision to seek public financing.
I guess it would be too much to ask for the MSM to call Howard Dean on his latest hypocrisy.
04/24 02:46 PM
Share
