McCain Call Raises an Ethics Question

[IChing]

Source: NY Times

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MICHAEL COOPER
Published: July 12, 2007


About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Senator John McCain ducked off the Senate floor, entered the Republican cloakroom and took out his mobile phone. Just hours after accepting the resignation of his two top campaign aides, he was making a conference call to his top fund-raisers to urge them to keep up the fight.

The call, however, may only have exacerbated an already tough week for Mr. McCain. Senate ethics rules expressly forbid lawmakers to engage in campaign activities inside Senate facilities. If Mr. McCain solicited campaign contributions on a call from government property, that would be a violation of federal criminal law as well.

Mr. McCain was well aware of the rules. Ten years ago he led Republican calls for an independent prosecutor to investigate accusations of violations of the same rules by Vice President Al Gore. Mr. McCain went on to make the episode a cornerstone of both his 2000 Republican primary campaign and his argument for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/us/politics/12mccain.html?ex=1341892800&en=7ac2094928a7cb1c&ei=5124&partner=digg&exprod=digg

[lonestarnot]

1. Cheaters never really win.

[grace0418]

16. I'd like to believe that but look at Dubya.

Let's hope McCain actually has to pay for his cheating.

[MO_Dem]

2. Hahhh!

Hypocrisy knows no bounds these days......


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[existentialist]

3. Especially when it comes

to too many repubs!

[Drum]

4. God, wasn't he Mister Campaign Reform awhile back?

I'm kinda dense with keeping track of all of our Reps and Senators, but I thought McCain useta talk up "fair campaign contribution" laws and the like. Honestly, it was the only appealing quality that (I thought) he had. Not that I'm legitimately surprised, mind you. I just thought maybe he'd not piss on that one aspect of campaigning since he'd seemed a petitioner against those violations. But I guess that hypocrisy is just par for the course.

Let's change course(s)!

[TwilightGardener]

5. All right, so he ducked into a cloakroom and made a cell-phone campaign call--

I will give him a pass on this, this is minor--compared to spinning the surge and arguing against the Webb amendment--TRULY criminal activities.

[frogcycle]

9. agree

it is truly amazing how we as a populace seem to be able to overlook being raped but object to the rapist's bad breath

[yardwork]

15. I disagree. There is a reason for these rules.

If candidates who are already in Congress use congressional facilities to raise money, it gives them a hugely unfair advantage over people who are not already elected.

This is not ok.

[Skip Intro]

6. are they all hypocrites? n/t

[rodeodance]

7. tsk tsk.

[LynnTheDem]

8. McCain; Republican. Hypocrite.

The two always go together.

[Tesha]

10. I've met McCain; no question: he has no ethics. (NT)

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Sounds to me that McCain has come to the end of the road, politically.

[Peggy Day]

12. But that was a Democrat-big difference-no independent prosecutors for Republicans! nt

[tanyev]

13. His campaign is finally picking up some real momentum.

Downwards.

[Rambis]

14. Stick a fork in him

He is done- I wish he would stick around for awhile to make other spend more $ but he is going nowhere.