McCain Phone Call On Senate Property Raises an Ethics Question...

[rndmprsn]

water getting a wee bit hot for Mr "bomb Iran"?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/us/politics/12mccain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, July 11 — 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...

...Matt David, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, confirmed that Mr. McCain made the phone call from the cloakroom. Mr. David said Mr. McCain used his campaign cellphone and did not specifically ask the fund-raisers for campaign contributions, which would have been a crime. And the spokesman sought to distinguish Mr. McCain’s call, made as he was managing the Republican side of a fierce Senate debate over the Iraq war, from the accusations once made against Mr. Gore.

“This is very different than systematically abusing your office to raise money,” Mr. David said.

Whether a conference call with fund-raisers could constitute a solicitation of campaign contributions and thus violate the criminal law as well as the internal Senate ethics rules can depends on the details of the call, several legal experts said.

“If it is a solicitation, it is illegal,” said Lawrence Noble, a nonpartisan expert on political law in Washington.

[IChing]

1. I just posted this in LBNs and thought about posting here

thanks

A republican't with ethic problems what a shocker.

[rndmprsn]

2. getting the popcorn out...

mccain's been fun to watch (fall apart) all week =]

[napi21]

3. I understand the accusation, and I think it IS a violation of the ethic laws, but

I also think it doesn't really matter now. McCain is the only person who doesn't recognise that his campaign is DEAD!

[AlCzervik]

4. agreed but it is ironic considering he's mr. campaign finance reform.

[frogcycle]

5. I just read another thread

commenting on repukes screaming Clinton! Clinton! w/respect to the Vitter thing. Now here they are screaming Gore! Gore! w/respect to Hatch act violation

are they going to scream Washington! Washington! when bush loses it and starts cutting brush in the rose garden?