McCain's plan to violate his public financing pledge

Over the Fourth of July weekend, the McCain campaign launched a $3 million negative ad blitz against Barack Obama.

The reason that I emphasized "McCain campaign" is that the media has uncritically reported the spin that these ads are part of an independent, uncoordinated effort by the RNC.

That's not the case. While it is true that the legally speaking, the ads are being placed by what's known as an "independent expenditure committee," that's a purely technical distinction designed for compliance the campaign finance laws that John McCain himself wrote.

This isn't spin -- the McCain campaign itself has repeatedly made it clear that its efforts and those of the RNC are one and the same. It's all part of his plan to exploit loopholes in his own law -- a plan that will make a mockery of his public financing pledge.

Just a few weeks ago, McCain's publicly touted its joint operations with the RNC as the way it would compete with Barack Obama through the general election. Here's McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, reassuring supporters that McCain would be able to outraise Barack Obama by coordinating its fundraising and campaign activities with the RNC:

And when Barack Obama announced his decision to forgo the public finance system, the McCain campaign reiterated its view that the RNC operation would allow it to compete:

The McCain campaign hoped that by accepting public financing – which will yield it more $84.1 million – and relying on the deep-pockets of the Republican National Committee, it will be able to stay competitive with Mr. Obama.

Here's how it works: the basic idea is that while McCain's main campaign committee cannot accept contributions for the general election, the RNC can accept such contributions -- and use them towards McCain's election. The limits are very high: individuals can contribute up to $70,000 to McCain's campaign through Republican Party organizations -- $28,500 directly to the RNC, and the rest to state parties.

Moreover, McCain himself can lead the efforts to raise this money, underscoring the fact that there is virtually no difference between direct contributions to his main campaign committee and contributions to the RNC -- other than the fact that the RNC contribution limits are much higher.

It's all a giant loophole, a loophole that McCain himself was fully aware of when he made his pledge to limit his campaign spending to public funds in the general election. And now, although the general election (for McCain) does not begin until the GOP convention ends on September 4th, all indications are that he will brazenly violate it.