McCAIN MAY HAVE AN EVEN WORSE PROBLEM WITH THE FEC THAN WITH WHOM HE'S BEEN IN BED WITH-- LITERALLY OR FIGURATIVELY

Normal Americans won't care about the accusations-- not by the NY Times, by the way, if you failed to read the piece and only heard about it from far right propagandists, like most people who are babbling about it, but by several of McCain's top aides-- that some lecherous and pathetic old man may or may not have been getting a little extramarital action on the side. But it isn't the reactions of "normal Americans" that has McCain's PR operation campaign in hysterics. The Republican base-- bigoted, self righteous, Bible-thumping, snake-handling loons-- doesn't trust McCain. They know he's not a Christian, at least not by their narrow definition, and they know he's a long time whoremonger and adulterer. These charges will stick in some of their narrow minds long after normal Americans have laughed them off. Now the shilling for lobbyists is a far more serious matter and we'll have to see if the media actually exposes McCain, in any serious sense for what he's actually been guilty of. For now, though, the McCain PR operatives aren't worried about something that abstract and complex; all they want to do is damage control on the bimbo-alert-- and, of course, insinuate that there is a sense of solidarity between Times-hating wingnuts and the man who was endorsed by that paper several weeks ago.

There may, however, be something just as vexing about to descend on them. (Can you imagine how Romney is feeling towards whoever told him it was time to pack it in and get out of the race?) This morning's Washington Post spells out what people have been talking about all week: McCain has troubles with the Federal Election Commission, serious ones. They told him he can't withdraw from the public financing he had requested-- which means that unless he breaks the law, he's not going to be able to spend what he wants to until the fall. The irony of course, is that the system is one he crafted-- and one he gets so much fire from the far right over. McCain's campaign attempted to pivot on the Times expose to ask Republicans to send him checks in the mail.

But McCain's attempts to build up his campaign coffers before a general election contest appeared to be threatened by the stern warning yesterday from Federal Election Commission Chairman David M. Mason, a Republican. Mason notified McCain that the commission had not granted his Feb. 6 request to withdraw from the presidential public financing system.

The implications of that could be dramatic. Last year, when McCain's campaign was starved for cash, he applied to join the financing system to gain access to millions of dollars in federal matching money. He was also permitted to use his FEC certification to bypass the time-consuming process of gathering signatures to get his name on the ballot in several states, including Ohio.

By signing up for matching money, McCain agreed to adhere to strict state-by-state spending limits and an overall limit on spending of $54 million for the primary season, which lasts until the party's nominating convention in September. The general election has a separate public financing arrangement.

But after McCain won a series of early contests and the campaign found its financial footing, his lawyer wrote to the FEC requesting to back out of the program -- which is permitted for candidates who have not yet received any federal money and who have not used the promise of federal funding as collateral for borrowing money.

Mason's letter raises two issues as the basis for his position. One is that the six-member commission lacks a quorum, with four vacancies because of a Senate deadlock over President Bush's nominees for the seats. Mason said the FEC would need to vote on McCain's request to leave the system, which is not possible without a quorum. Until that can happen, the candidate will have to remain within the system, he said.

The second issue is more complicated. It involves a $1 million loan McCain obtained from a Bethesda bank in January. The bank was worried about his ability to repay the loan if he exited the federal financing program and started to lose in the primary race. McCain promised the bank that, if that happened, he would reapply for matching money and offer those as collateral for the loan. While McCain's aides have argued that the campaign was careful to make sure that they technically complied with the rules, Mason indicated that the question needs further FEC review.

If the FEC refuses McCain's request to leave the system, his campaign could be bound by a potentially debilitating spending limit until he formally accepts his party's nomination. His campaign has already spent $49 million, federal reports show. Knowingly violating the spending limit is a criminal offense that could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison.

McCAIN'S FRIENDS: