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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will file a complaint against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Monday, charging that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is breaking the law by trying to get out of a public financing agreement. In a Sunday afternoon conference call with reporters, DNC chairman Howard Dean said McCain's attempt to withdraw from a loan agreement that hinged on an acceptance of public financing speaks directly to McCain's "integrity." "This is a classic example of someone who talks one way and does another when it benefits him," Dean said. On the call, Dean repeatedly criticized McCain for allegedly violating a law he helped reform with the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 -- generally referred to as McCain-Feingold. "They might as well just call it the Feingold law," Dean said. The DNC has made clear in recent days it plans to paint the prohibitive Republican nominee as a hypocrite, someone who decries Washington politics while enjoying the support and aid of lobbyists.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded that “Howard Dean’s hypocrisy is breathtaking given that in 2003 he withdrew from the matching funds system in exactly the same way that John McCain is doing today.” Dean and the DNC sought to emphasize that when Dean was running for president, he never hinged his loan on a promise of public financing.
One McCain aide recently told The Hill that the Democratic Party is afraid of McCain because he is its "worst nightmare." Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said “Dean’s misguided attacks in no way excuse Obama’s vacillations on his pledge to the American people.” |
