February 22, 2008, McCain Tripleheader
Bruce the Veep has come up with a three-fer, on the subject of Sen. McCain and his... troubles.
First, we learn that in the ultimate "hoist on your own petard" situation, McCain may be locked into too-low federal funding limits (limits he himself opposed raising!) and may open himself to charges of at best hypocrisy (McCain-Feingold was after all, his idea!) and at worst criminality (up to five years in jail and stiff fines!) if he tries to opt out, though if he is stuck with the federal spending limits... he can't spend money til' August! Part of the problem is that the Federal Election Commission has no quorum, as Bush insists on a notorious vote-suppresser on the commission (and the Senate charge to stop this is led by... wait for it... Sen. Barack Obama... swwwwweeeeeet!)
Meanwhile, McCain's denials of the substance of the smear in the Times associated with a possible relationship and/or favors with lobbyist Vicki Iseman... it turns out that McCain's denials are in conflict with earlier sworn statements he gave... oops...
And finally, it looks like the scandal is cramping McCain's campaign style in troubling ways for him.
Time will tell. For Rudy, the combination sex/financial scandal of cooking City books to cover-up giving police chauffeur services to his paramour ended it for The-Hero-of-9/11(TM). While the aforementioned scandals will certainly undermine the pretense of "maverickness" and "reformer" for Sen. McCain... the fact is, Barack Obama could probably do that on his own. Ultimately, we will see if there is any substance to these problems, or if McCain can proceed in stride...