Good news from DC:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following statement today regarding Hans von Spakovsky’s withdrawal of his nomination to the Federal Election Commission:
“I welcome the President’s decision to withdraw the controversial nomination of Mr. von Spakovsky. It is an action I have repeatedly urged the President to take for more than six months. Democrats stood united in their opposition to von Spakovsky because of his long and well-documented history of working to suppress the rights of minorities and the elderly to vote. He was not qualified to hold any position of trust in our government.
“His withdrawal today is a victory for our electoral process. With Mr. von Spakovsky now removed, I anticipate that we will be able to swiftly put a functioning FEC in place. That too is what the American people deserve.”
von Spakovsky, to refresh your recollection, has a long and nasty history of keeping people away from the polls. In particular, his work inspired the notorious pre-2000 purge of Florida’s voting rolls. More here.
A rare ray of sunshine out of DC.
peter-porcupine says
This has a lot less to do with the GOP nominees and a lot more to do with damaging McCain.
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p>At a low ebb in his candidacy, McCain applied for Federal funding. He later applied to rescind that request. Because the Democrats – specifically Obama – put a hold on ALL nominees, of both parties, leaving the FEC at two there is no quorum – so both funding and the withdrawal request are both in limbo. No Federal funds and also no ability to raise more until the request to withdraw is acted on.
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p>Meanwhile, the media hammers McCain ‘inability’ to raise money, while his hands are tied. And by law, the Democrats have to accept SOME Republican – but remain committed to not doing so.
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p>If GOP CANDIDATES – jeesh, can’t Obama even find a surrogate? – were doing this to a Dem, you’d scream to high heaven. And to me, this just demonstrates why government involvement in campaign funding is a bad idea – the Democrats have found a way to partisanize it before the first cycle is over!