Redstate

By Brad Smith Posted in FEC — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Congress moves to abolish the Federal Election Commission!

OK, not exactly, at least not in the straightforward sense of abolishing the Commission. But nonetheless, we may soon get to see if the nation can survive without a Federal Election Commission. The smart money yes says.

What's this all about? Well, read on..."

It's always fun when the Federal Election Commission makes itself look foolish, or even when others make it look foolish through no fault of its own (hey, Commissioners don't write these laws - blame Congress!).

But Colbert aside, there is real business going on at the FEC, which brings us back to the languishing nomination of Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky, last reported on here, currently under attack for being a Republican (Well, they don't actually say that, but that's the gist of the critique).

Senators Russ Feingold and Barack Obama have put a hold on von Spakovsky's nomination. As a result, Republicans have refused to allow the nomination of 3 other sitting FEC Commissioners awaiting confirmation to full terms to go forward - Republican Commissioner David Mason and Democratic Commissioners Bob Lenhard and Steve Walther. It's a game of chicken, and so far neither side is blinking.

What makes all this of more than passing interest is that von Spakovsky, Lenhard, and Walther are all serving on recess appointments that expire on December 31. Couple that with the fact that one Republican seat is already vacant (the President has yet to nominate anyone for that seat), and come January 1 the six member Commission could be down to just two Commissioners - Mason, and Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, both of whose terms expired some time ago, but who are serving as "acting" commissioners, a status that they can retain until either renominated and confirmed (as with Mason) or replaced. And this matters because under the statute governing the FEC, there must be 4 votes for the FEC to take any action.

Beyond the welcome possibility of an FEC shutdown (which would, by the way, make it impossible for the FEC to vote to release the federal tax dollars that Senator McCain is counting on to subsidize his cash-poor presidential campaign), this does have some repercussions.

For the GOP, it is a question of prerogative. Are they going to let the Democrats dictate appointments to seats reserved for the GOP? Presumably, Democrats, who tend to believe in speech regulation more than Republicans, will want a functioning FEC more than the Republicans will. So the White House has a big stick in the threat to let the FEC languish. Or it could give more recess appointments, but only to Republican Commissioners, leaving the Democratic seats vacant, so that the GOP would have a 3-1 advantage on the Commission. Finally, while the President can't give another recess appointment to von Spakovsky, if he were feeling ornery he could probably find a Republican to accept a recess appointment who is even more disliked by the left wing of the Democratic Party. So it's a strong hand.

But the Dems are not defenseless, and we will see how far they are in the maw of the netroots, for whom blocking von Spakovsky has become a cause celebre. They may figure that the price for President Bush to leave the Commission unstaffed would be too high. Giving recess appointees only to Republians may not work for the White House either - Commissioner Weintraub could block any move by the Republicans simply by refusing to supply the necessary 4th vote. And the Democrats may figure that if they block von Spakovsky, no matter who is ultimately appointed in his place, they'll score points with the far left base.

Meanwhile, von Spakovsky, whose nearly 22 months on the FEC have been tremendously successful, is left twisting in the wind by the campaign finance zealotry of Senator Feingold and the presidential ambitions of Senator Obama. Such is Washington.

But while I wish Commissioner von Spakovsky only the best, I must confess that part of me likes the idea of shutting down the Commission. Would anyone other than Senator McCain and others whose presidential ambitions now hinge on sucking at the government teat notice? I suspect not. And that would demonstrate something worthwhile.