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Democracy 21: White House Move Yesterday to Rig FEC Enforcement Decision by Removing David Mason from FEC Constitutes Political Obstruction of Justice
"The White House action powerfully demonstrates why there must be a new approach to enforcing the nation's campaign finance laws," Wertheimer said.
Yesterday, the White House withdrew the nomination of "holdover" FEC Commissioner
The White House got rid of Mason after President Bush twice had found him to be an acceptable Republican appointee to the Commission.
In
The White House gave no explanation for why Mason, a previously acceptable nominee, had suddenly been withdrawn.
"It is clear why the White House threw Mason off the FEC," Wertheimer said.
"In a letter to Senator McCain earlier this year, Commissioner Mason had raised questions about McCain's request to withdraw from the presidential primary public financing system and about a loan that Senator McCain's campaign took out and the collateral provided for the loan," Wertheimer said.
"By just raising questions about enforcement matters relating to Senator McCain's presidential campaign, Commissioner Mason sealed his fate and lost his job," Wertheimer stated.
"The White House action taken to dispose of Mason was eerily reminiscent of earlier actions taken by the White House and the Justice Department to dispose of U.S. Attorneys whose enforcement actions or inactions they disagreed with," Wertheimer stated.
"Mason's removal from the FEC by the White House has sent a powerful and destructive message to the three pending Republican FEC nominees that even the slightest bit of independence will not be tolerated and that the job of a Republican FEC Commissioner is to protect the interests and needs of Republicans, not to implement and enforce the campaign finance laws," Wertheimer stated.
In nominating
McGahn is counsel to the NRCC. He previously served as a campaign finance and ethics lawyer for former House Majority Leader
"McGahn's own words show his misguided view of the FEC and provide the best evidence for why he should not be an FEC Commissioner," Wetheimer stated.
In an interview with
"The Commission is nothing more than Congress' constitutional power to be the final judge in its own elections. That is where it comes from, the creation of House and Senate. So because of that, how independent can you be? When with the stroke of a pen, you're out of business tomorrow. It's not really like other agencies. It's not an executive branch agency. You have the President who nominates and the Senate confirm, the President appoints. But it's not like other agencies because you have the charge of the fox guarding the hen-house. You gonna appoint your guys to make sure you are taken care of. The original intent was for it to be a glorified Congressional committee. That's the way I see it. But over time it has got more independent and more money. The flip side is that you have a certain Senator who wants their guy on the Commission, just cos they want them. You can't really stop that but that doesn't really get you the most qualified person either."
McGahn was the NRCC's counsel in
The scheme involved the NRCC transferring
In response to an FEC complaint filed by Democracy 21 and other reform groups against the NRCC circumvention scheme, the FEC general counsel concluded that ''had the money not been returned, the evidence would have pointed strongly to a conclusion that the NRCC 'financed' the Forum,'' which would have been illegal. Since the
When the FEC conducted an audit of Delay's Leadership PAC, ARMPAC, and found that the PAC had improperly spent more than
For the latest reform news and to access previous reports, releases, and analysis from Democracy 21, visit www.democracy21.org.
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SOURCE Democracy 21
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