There’s more to passing legislation than voting on it, but why wouldn’t he make sure… oh.
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In other words, his campaign tried to play it so that if McCain’s primary campaign failed, they could use public funding to pay off his debts, but if it succeeded and he raised lots of money, they could back out of the need to take public money. Ezra Klein calls it “a legal masterpiece, albeit an ethical travesty.” (The L.A. Times was clever enough to mention this.) Whether or not McCain’s decision to accept public financing is directly related to being unable to get out of his legal thicket is unclear (the FEC hasn’t ruled because they don’t have a quorum, long story), as is more abstractly whether Obama is being a dick about his promise. But I do know that McCain probably deserves to have a Coke and a smile and shut the f**k up about it.
