FEC Set to Shut Down on Eve of Primaries
In a very real and practical sense, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) will shutter its doors on January 1st since a standoff between President Bush and the panel appears to have no end. Currently, the FEC only has two of the six members required for the FEC to function. President Bush’s nominees have not been confirmed and it looks unlikely that they ever will be.
Although the 375 auditors, lawyers and investigators at the FEC will continue to process work already before them, a variety of matters that fall to the commissioners will be placed on hold indefinitely. Chief among them are deciding whether to launch investigations into possible campaign finance violations and determining the penalties.
Also affected are the presidential candidates themselves, who can’t access the matching contribution money because four votes are needed to release the funds.
And then there is a range of vexing campaign finance questions that hang in limbo: Can a firm that operates a blimp accept unlimited contributions to fly it over New Hampshire with Ron Paul’s name on the side? Can a senator use his campaign account as a legal defense fund? How will campaigns comply with the new law that requires them to identify the lobbyists who are collecting campaign checks on their behalf?
None of these questions will be answered and the cases will sit idle until the FEC has its necessary six members. At the heart of the problem is the typical tit-for-tat political style of Washington. Several Democrats were upset with the nomination of the controversial Hans A. von Spakovsky and blocked his nomination. The Republicans responded with stating that if von Spakovsky wasn’t accepted, then they were going to reject the two Democratic nominees.
“The Democrats have picked their nominees, and we’ve picked ours,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said as the Senate prepared to recess for the holidays. “What we have here,” he said, is “the Democrats trying to veto one of our nominees. That isn’t going to happen. They’re all four going to go together, or none of them will be approved.”
So, there’s really no problem with the other nominees. It’s just a pissing contest, whereby Senator McConnell has flat out said that he doesn’t care if the other nominees are qualified or not. He’s going to take his ball and go home. Instead of playing politics, the Senators should do what’s best for the country; approve the nominees except for von Spakovsky and deal with him after the new year.
Unfortunately, no one is keeping an eye on one of the hottest campaigns in years, one that started especially early and needs to have oversight.
