Why did the White House jump one of its favorites, FEC chairman David Mason? To help John McCain with his argument before the committee that he legally and properly withdrew from the public financing him? To help him obtain public financing for the general election? The McCain campaign does not deny that they lobbied members of Congress to achieve this end result. Trevor Potter, McCain's general counsel, points out that such nominations are the province of the White House, and not McCain. Here's his reasoning:
So, let me say that I think the criticism of the President's decision not to re-appoint Dave Mason rests on a faulty assumption. Critics write as if Commissioner Mason has already determined that Sen. McCain has violated federal campaign finance law, and that he would so find if only he is on the Commission when a quorum is restored. I do not believe this is the case. Commissioner Mason wrote the campaign in February to ask for additional information concerning Sen. McCain's withdrawal from the public funding system, and it was provided to him in full. Commissioner Mason did not state that the McCain campaign acted improperly in any way: he stated that he believed the FEC had to vote on Sen. McCain's withdrawal from the primary funding system, while the campaign's lawyers do not think such a vote is required. The McCain campaign believes that Commissioner Mason's questions have been answered satisfactorily, and that if he is on the Commission when a quorum is restored he will agree that Sen. McCain's withdrawal from the system was proper. Accordingly, given the lack of evidence that Commissioner Mason thinks otherwise, the controversy about the White House decision to nominate someone else for the Mason seat seems to be a manufactured one.
Mr. Mason was not given any information about the sudden White House decision to drop his renomination.
Bob Bauer, Barack Obama's lawyer, is having none of it:
Of course, the appearance is fairly troubling here. One minute, this Commissioner is in good standing and the next minute on his way out the door, and what happens in between is that he becomes famous for challenging John McCain’s conduct of his legal affairs. McCain, fully versed in the preoccupations of reform, appreciates as well as anyone else and better than most the significance of disturbing "appearances", and yet here he is content to endure them, at his own expense. It is apparently worth it.
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