McCain dinged for robocalls

PHXated likes Dan Nowicki, the Republic’s political columnist, but thinks a note today on criticism against John McCain was incomplete.

A DC group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed an ethics carge against him for doing some recorded telephone campaigning against the health care bill. Wrote Nowicki:

CREW argues that the robocalls, paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, violate a Senate rule.

McCain dismissed CREW as “a far-left group” and said the complaint is meritless.

“They might have a beef if I paid for it with Senate money or official money, but that was a political issue paid for with political contributions,” McCain said. “It isn’t any more complicated than that.”

a) “Violated a Senate rule” explains nothing. More on that in a minute. b) CREW isn’t a far-left group. It’s nonpartisan and fairly fearless. It’s a typical cheap shot from McCain that should have been put into context. c) McCain’s next comment—"they might have a beef if I paid for it with Senate money"—is exactly backward, which is why the bland description of CREW’s complaint didn’t help.

The issue is that it was outside money. Under Senate rules, he’s not supposed to be using lobbying money to, essentially, do his job, which is be a politician. That’s what the CREW complaint is about, which you can read here.

I don’t care one way or the other about the complaint itself; but the Republic should have explained the matter more fully.