John McCain vs. The FEC

A friend emailed me the other day to ask why I hadn't written about the controversy involving Sen. McCain, public financing promises, and the Federal Election Commission. The answer is that I didn't fully understand the issue, and didn't want to sound dumb.

Luckily, TPM's Josh Marshall is smarter than me and he can actually explain this story-



The worst part for Sen. McCain? It appears his actions are violating an election law better known for its Senate sponsors... the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law. In short, given that McCain accepted federal funding, and has nearly reached the legal spending limits, for him to spend any more money until September would be illegal. Problematic, no?

[PS- Obama looks smart for avoiding this, as he just passed the 1,000,000 donor mark!]