FEC Shuts Down As Dems Refuse Criminal Appointments

Giving credit where credit is due, I want to thank the Dems for refusing to accept horrible appointees on the Federal Election Commission even though it means the FEC will have to shut down. No recess atrocities, either, will be possible because the Congress is refusing to recess. Three cheers to this exercise of the powers they can muster, and those are slim until we get more Dems in Congress.

The potential for an FEC shutdown has been looming for weeks, as a handful of Democratic senators voiced opposition to one of Bush's nominees to the commission, Hans A. von Spakovsky. Their concern stemmed not from von Spakovsky's work on the FEC but from his tenure in the Justice Department's civil rights division.

His critics contend that von Spakovsky advocated a controversial Texas redistricting plan and fought to institute a requirement in Georgia that voters show photo identification before being permitted to cast ballots.

"I am particularly concerned with his efforts to undermine voting rights," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said in a statement released in September after he placed a hold on von Spakovsky's nomination. Obama and others gathered more opposition to von Spakovsky's nomination by drawing civil rights advocates into a lobbying effort for its rejection. They attracted the involvement of a number of groups, including the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, that typically would not be engaged in a battle over an FEC nomination.

The blockade worked, but Republican leaders in the Senate countered with one of their own. If von Spakovsky were rejected, they would not allow the two Democratic nominees to be appointed, either.
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As senators left town this week, the small community of lawyers and advocates who monitor campaign finance law tried to take stock of the new reality. There will not be total lawlessness, they said. The statute of limitations on most campaign finance violations does not run out for five years, so when the commission is at full strength, it will be able to pursue complaints.

While it would be far preferable to have an operational FEC during coming campaigning, the proliferation of regulators who oppose the public interest is far, far out of hand. The representatives of our country's interests have got to take hold, and that's what they're doing.

Further violations of laws by those who are supposed to enforce them has to be stopped, and our Dem leadership is having to go to extraordinary lengths to stop them. It's another line drawn in the sand, and we are learning that the cretin in chief sees that line as his to draw. I can't see him making any rational response to the Dems' crossing his imaginary Rubicons yet. The GoPerv party is going to have to act to solve his irrational behavior, or face the consequences that follow. Failing to have an acting FEC may be something they're pleased about, but it's not sitting well with voters.