"Dear John..."

If yesterday was all about what you can get away with without a functioning Federal Election Commission, today's about the downside of an absence of a functioning FEC for a presidential candidate.  Because if you need four votes for the FEC to do anything, you might also need those four votes for it to not do something, as John McCain has now learned.

See, John McCain sent the FEC a letter purporting to withdraw from public financing for the primaries, despite his earlier submission for and certification of $5,812,197.35 in matching funds. FEC Chairman David Mason, a Republican (and one of two remaining Commissioners), has written back to Sen. McCain:

[W]e consider your letter as a request that the Commission withdraw its previous certifications.  Just as 2 U.S.C. s.437c(c) required an affirmative vote of four Commissioners to make these certifications, it requires an affirmative vote of four Commissioners to withdraw them.  Therefore, the Commission will consider your request at such time as it has a quorum.

Translation: John McCain, you're still locked in to the matching funds system at least until the Senate fills some of the FEC vacancies.  Given that by January 31, Maverick had already spent $49,650,185.36 of the estimated $54M which would be his limit between now and the Convention under the matching funds program ... umm, yeah, that's a problem, and I foresee a great many packets of ramen noodle soup in his campaign's immediate future.  

The letter goes on to make an even more important point -- that McCain still must explain to the Commission's satisfaction why his use of the certifications (and potential future certifications) in obtaining the bank loans did not already commit him to the matching funds program, a point I highlighted on Monday.  Josh Marshall explains it:

Back in August McCain opted into the public financing system for the primaries. Then in December he needed to come up with some cash quickly. Well, no problem. He was already guaranteed over $5 million from the feds. So all he needed to do was put that guarantee down as collateral for the loan.

Only McCain didn't want to do that because once he formally made the federally-guaranteed money collateral then he gave up his right to later opt back out of the system.

But, he really, really needed the money. So McCain, along with his campaign finance lawyer Trevor Potter (whom I've met and is a very sharp guy) came up with a workaround. It went like this. McCain wouldn't make the guarantee collateral. But he promised that if his campaign tanked he would opt out of the system and then opt back in. This would mean remaining a candidate even after he knew he wasn't really in the race in order to a) get back the public money to pay his creditors and b) assure he could sign the original loan note with the de facto collateral while nonetheless maintaining his ability to once again opt out of the public financing system at any one of many possible future junctures at which his campaign might pop back from life support and it would be in his interest to go back to raising money from donors.

Of course, McCain's campaign did come off the mat. And since he now wants to raise and spend as much as possible before the end of the summer, earlier this month he did actually opt back out. The FEC, the outfit that enforces the campaign finance laws, says McCain's not allowed to opt out. But whatever, he opted out anyway.

Explain to me how this guy gets out of the gate attacking anyone else about honoring pledges tied to the campaign finance system.

Indeed.  Would you sign a pledge with this man?