The McCain campaign, faced with a long delay in getting approval from the Federal Election Commission to withdraw from the public campaign financing system, today offered an interesting reply to the agency: We didn't need your permission anyway.
In a letter to the FEC, a lawyer for the likely Republican nominee indicated that McCain would voluntarily forgo so-called "public matching funds" for the remainder of the primary season, freeing him up to raise unlimited money. The response from McCain amounts to a thumb in the eye for Republican FEC chairman David Mason, who had questioned whether the campaign used public funds as collateral for a $1m loan obtained last year.
McCain also included a vow from the bank that gave him that $1m, fittingly named Fidelity & Trust, that no taxpayer money was used to guarantee the loan. The ball is now in Mason's court.
