Posted on 07/14/2002 8:22:09 AM PDT by D.C. Media Hor
Analysis: McCain and conflict at the FEC
By Peter Roff, UPI National Political Analyst
From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk - Published 7/12/2002 3:05 PM
WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- Changing the way money interacts with American politics is been a difficult and contentious proposition. That the House and Senate have passed --and the president has signed into law -- one plan for reform has not diminished the rancor.
On June 22, the first of six rule-makings by the Federal Election Commission was adopted by a vote of 5 to 1. Self-identified reformers who have long advocated the McCain-Feingold approach accused the commissioners of gutting the act in their first move and disregarding the intent of the principal authors, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold.
This assertion has been put forward not just on the outside, but from McCain himself.
The Arizona Republican is now holding up all presidential nominations before the Senate -- including federal district and circuit court nominees -- until the White House agrees to put in writing its intention to nominate Washington election law attorney Ellen Weintraub to an opening on the commission during the August congressional research.
It was in the aftermath of the "Keating Five" -- of which he was one -- savings and loan scandal that McCain developed his zeal for campaign finance reform. There are many in Arizona who believe his passion for the issue began as an effort to close the political wound the Keating investigation had opened.
As The Arizona Republic wrote, "McCain received the most direct contributions from Keating. But the investigation found that he was the least culpable, along with (former Sen. John) Glenn. McCain attended the meetings but did nothing afterward to stop Lincoln's death spiral. Lincoln's losses eventually were set at $3.4 billion, the most expensive failure in the national S&L scandal."
McCain has repeatedly apologized for the poor judgment he showed during the affair. He has called the investigation "a nightmare" and still calls the period one of the most painful of his life.
However, McCain also said the experience was an opportunity for personal growth. "The thing I learned was that it's not only impropriety that counts; it's the appearance that is just as important."
There are some on Capitol Hill who now quietly suggest McCain may want to revisit that lesson before he moves further in his one-man crusade to have Weintraub named an FEC commissioner.
Suggestions have arisen that Weintraub may be a walking conflict of interest.
Weintraub is currently "Of Counsel" to the Washington office of the law firm Perkins Coie, which has provided services to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Her firm manages or has managed a number of leadership political action committees including those affiliated with potential 2004 presidential candidates Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass.; Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who is also the current chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council; Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who was the party's vice-presidential nominee in 2000; and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
Since the beginning of 1997, according to reports in the Washington media, Perkins Coie has received more than $750,000 in payments from the campaign fund of Sen. Bob Torricelli, D-N.J., who was until recently the subject of an investigation over allegations that he violated campaign finance laws and whose campaign efforts are expected to again be brought before the FEC, according to GOP sources in New Jersey.
Only one other member of the commission, Republican Michael Toner, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, is or has been as involved in the inner workings of the national party fundraising committees or the fundraising operations of senior party elected leaders.
Her presence on the commission would, some suggest, be an additional financial boon to her firm, whose Washington office is headed by Democrat Bob Bauer.
Bauer has also represented the Democrat's national party committees in legal matters and is close to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Gephardt, who both reportedly retained him to handle personal ethics problems.
Attorney Bauer, who is an acknowledged expert in election and political law and tactics, is believe by some Republicans to have been the legal advocate behind the ethics campaign waged by Democrat against Gingrich before the FEC and the House Ethics Committee. Bauer was also the architect of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's failed effort to pervert the federal RICO anti-mob corruption law by using it against House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas. According to the political twice-weekly newspaper Roll Call, Bauer also played a key role in crafting the anti-impeachment strategy used by former President Bill Clinton.
All that is mere political prelude to what some say is the real issue: Weintraub's husband, Bill Dauster, directs the legislative operation of Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., -- McCain's principal Senate ally in the effort to change the nation's campaign laws.
To recap, what McCain is demanding is that a) the wife of one of the principal staffers to b) one of the principal authors of the campaign finance legislation c) be appointed to the commission writing the regulations that will determine how that legislation is implemented and applied d) in time for her to be an active participant in determining what those regulations will say -- e) without giving the Senate an opportunity to consider the potential conflict and render its collective will as to whether it matters.
"The thing I learned was that it's not only impropriety that counts; it's the appearance that is just as important," McCain once said after the Keating Five debacle but has, in this case, apparently chosen to overlook.
The impact the Weintraub-Dauster-Feingold-McCain connection may have on the evolution of the nation's campaign laws does not trouble some people.
Chuck Lewis, who runs the independent government watchdog group The Center for Public Integrity, agrees that the appointment of Weintraub is "a potential problem" but he is not exercised about it.
Lewis says there is little if any chance that anyone could personally enrich themselves as a result of the connection, something he says is the trip wire over which a potential conflict becomes serious.
The are other things, Lewis says, more worthy of attention -- "like anonymous holds in the Senate and the abuse of the recess appointment power" -- than the problem of two marrieds working in related areas, something he suggests will become increasingly common as the years go by.
Others strongly disagree. Conservative strategist Grover Norquist, whose tax group Americans for Tax Reform opposed the McCain-Feingold approach to reform, says that potential financial benefit is not the only standard by which to measure how serious a conflict of interest might be.
"The idea that it isn't a conflict because you cannot make a lot of money out of it misses the point entirely," Norquist, who is closely allied with senior White House officials, says.
"Conflicts of interest can be just as much about power as they can about money. In that regard, this is a phenomenal conflict of interest. Elections are how Americans decide who will wield power. This is all about who has that power -- and the power to chose who will have the power," Norquist says.
He says McCain is abusing the process by demanding the Senate be bypassed to get his candidate named to the commission without hearing or debate.
"This is political pork barrel. It is something John McCain wants for his own personal needs. It has everything to do with the desires of a failed politician who is trying to remake his moment of glory," Norquist says.
For now, McCain is making good on his threat to stop the confirmation of all of the president's nominees over this one appointment. How long it will continue likely depends on the resolve of the White House to hang tough against the demands of his one-time primary opponent, something insiders suggest the administration is more than happy to do.
Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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