McCain’s fundraising just took another hit
John McCain’s campaign says it is returning tens of thousands of dollars in contributions solicited by a foreign citizen.
The move follows the disclosure that the money was being raised by a Jordanian man who is a business partner of prominent Florida Republican Harry Sargeant III.
The McCain campaign says some of the people solicited by Mustafa Abu Naba’a had no intention of supporting McCain for president.
Campaign spokesman Brian Rogers says ‘that just didn’t sound right to us’ so the money is being returned.
Kudos to the Washington Post and NY Times for producing actual journalism (aka looking into something beyond a spoon-fed press release) for a change.
How is this “laundered” money?
Methinks someone needs to rewatch “Office Space” so they can see the definition of “launder” as it applies to money.
How is this “laundered” money?
Better question: how isn’t it?
No ed, that’s not a better question. Run along now kid.
In order to get this money to McCain, it was pushed through people who clearly had little to no interest in donating to a political campaign. Here, I’ll put it in terms you can understand: It looks a lot like Norman Hsu when he was getting people to contribute to Sen. Clinton. See, bad when it happens with a Democrat, now try to believe its bad when it happens to a Republican.
I declare IOKIYAR off base.
Just because it was bundled doesn’t mean the source of the money was concealed. Correct me if I’m wrong, I can go on to FEC.gov and see exactly who this money came from, not the bundler, but the actual person who made the donation.
It is (nearly?) exactly like Hsu. And like the Hsu case McCain returned the donations (it took a lot less time for him to do it than it took Senator Clinton). I guess the question is now whether Senator Obama will return his thousands of dollars in donations from the fine town of Rafah, GAza. Unless of course returning improper donations is something only Republicans are supposed to do during a general election.
Unless of course returning improper donations is something only Republicans are supposed to do during a general election.
Lordy, stuff like this is making me weary. You guessed it, SFC, we want Obama to be king of the world and above the legal system – far above it – and we want McCain to be his footstool. The media, blogosphere, universities, movie and music industries, and advertising executives are all against you in this conspiracy to bring forth the Messiah’s kingdom and end Freedom and Our Way Of Life As We Know It.
Please don’t take the above paragraph personally. It isn’t your (relatively harmless) post. But one can passively endure these narratives for only so long.
In case you hadn’t already guessed, we (or I do, at least) want Democrats to follow the finance laws too.
Trust me Parthenon, I take no offense at things said on blog comments. I’ve been called a lot worse to my face. All I ask of my political candidates is that they make some effort to follow the campaign finance laws. I’m not ignorant to the fact that there are, literally, millions of people donating amounts from tens to thousands of dollars to the candidates themselves, and multiples of that to various committees. It is naive to think that a campaign, even a well-staffed campaign, should be able to identify and validate each and every donation they receive as it is received. However, when an illegal donation is identified that campaign should, quickly, return that money.
Senator Clinton returned the donations made through Norman Hsu’s, and McCain did it with these ones in Florida. With Clinton the donations themselves weren’t even illegal. It was the fact they were bundled by a wanted felon. McCain’s donations were returned because the campaign said it didn’t “feel” right to keep money from people who made the donation because of who asked, not because of who it was going to. Again, nothing illegal about the donations. Senator Obama has received money from non-US citizens who are living in Gaza. Whatever tangential ties those people might have with Hamas is inconsquential, this is a clear violation of the campaign finance laws. Yet the money remains unreturned. And it’s an issue which was identified before the story about McCain broke. Senator Obama had an opportunity to get ahead of McCain on an issue McCain would be very vulnerable on. Instead it was, as best as I can tell, ignored. The Gaza money Obama has received is less than what McCain received from Sargent. Obama also has a sizable edge in campaign money compared to McCain. Returning the pittance he has received from Rafah, Gaza would have cost him nothing and gained him positive press and an angle of attack on McCain. Now though, McCain can attack Obama for taking money from Gaza, and when Obama returns the money he may be seen as caving in to McCain’s attacks. It was a needlessly squandered opportunity for the Obama campaign.