{"id":4788,"date":"2008-02-22T12:11:25","date_gmt":"2008-02-22T12:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html"},"modified":"2008-02-22T12:11:25","modified_gmt":"2008-02-22T12:11:25","slug":"mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html","title":{"rendered":"McCain is about to reap what he has sown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;ve got to love poetic justice, it&#8217;s so wonderful when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/02\/21\/AR2008022103141.html\">someone gets snagged on the very snares they set for others<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The nation&#8217;s top federal election official told Sen. John McCain yesterday that he cannot immediately withdraw from the presidential public financing system as he had requested, a decision that threatens to dramatically restrict his spending until the general election campaign begins in the fall.<br \/>\nThe prospect of being financially hamstrung by the very fundraising system he helped create is the latest in a series of bitter challenges for the presumed GOP nominee, who still faces a fractured conservative coalition as he assumes the mantle of party leadership.<br \/>\n[&#8230;]<br \/>\nBy signing up for matching money, McCain agreed to adhere to strict state-by-state spending limits and an overall limit on spending of $54 million for the primary season, which lasts until the party&#8217;s nominating convention in September. The general election has a separate public financing arrangement.<br \/>\nBut after McCain won a series of early contests and the campaign found its financial footing, his lawyer wrote to the FEC requesting to back out of the program &#8212; which is permitted for candidates who have not yet received any federal money and who have not used the promise of federal funding as collateral for borrowing money.<br \/>\nMason&#8217;s letter raises two issues as the basis for his position. <strong>One is that the six-member commission lacks a quorum, with four vacancies because of a Senate deadlock over President Bush&#8217;s nominees for the seats.<\/strong> Mason said the FEC would need to vote on McCain&#8217;s request to leave the system, which is not possible without a quorum. Until that can happen, the candidate will have to remain within the system, he said.<br \/>\n[&#8230;]<br \/>\nIf the FEC refuses McCain&#8217;s request to leave the system, his campaign could be bound by a potentially debilitating spending limit until he formally accepts his party&#8217;s nomination. His campaign has already spent $49 million, federal reports show. Knowingly violating the spending limit is a criminal offense that could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And because the Republicans in the Senate failed to move on Bush&#8217;s nominees, McCain can&#8217;t even get out of the system and has to accept spending limits until September. Doubly hoisted on his own petard!  Bwahahahahahahahaha Evidently, my dislike for McCain trumps party loyalty \ud83d\ude42<br \/>\nAll you people who voted for this guy because he was the most electable, how do you like his chances now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;ve got to love poetic justice, it&#8217;s so wonderful when someone gets snagged on the very snares they set for others: The nation&#8217;s top federal election official told Sen. John McCain yesterday that he cannot immediately withdraw from the presidential public financing system as he had requested, a decision that threatens to dramatically restrict his&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>McCain is about to reap what he has sown - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McCain is about to reap what he has sown - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You&#8217;ve got to love poetic justice, it&#8217;s so wonderful when someone gets snagged on the very snares they set for others: The nation&#8217;s top federal election official told Sen. John McCain yesterday that he cannot immediately withdraw from the presidential public financing system as he had requested, a decision that threatens to dramatically restrict his&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-22T12:11:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Susan Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"McCain is about to reap what he has sown - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"McCain is about to reap what he has sown - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","og_description":"You&#8217;ve got to love poetic justice, it&#8217;s so wonderful when someone gets snagged on the very snares they set for others: The nation&#8217;s top federal election official told Sen. John McCain yesterday that he cannot immediately withdraw from the presidential public financing system as he had requested, a decision that threatens to dramatically restrict his&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html","og_site_name":"Reformed Chicks Blabbing","article_published_time":"2008-02-22T12:11:25+00:00","author":"Susan Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html","name":"McCain is about to reap what he has sown - Reformed Chicks Blabbing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-02-22T12:11:25+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-22T12:11:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/b4e41455e911277a4681a65e81271065"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/mccain-is-about-to-reap-what-h.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"McCain is about to reap what he has sown"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/","name":"Reformed Chicks Blabbing","description":"Politics and current events from a Reformed perspective, by Michele McGinty","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/b4e41455e911277a4681a65e81271065","name":"Susan Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/020\/02041661cf28a19369e083191c05c819x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/020\/02041661cf28a19369e083191c05c819x96.jpg","caption":"Susan Johnson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/author\/sjohnson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}