First Lie, Now Cheat. What's next? Steal?

Guardian editor, Michael Tomasky calls John McCain, "The biggest liar in modern political history."  The numerous lies that John McCain has told in this campaign are beginning to catch up with him. In one month, McCain has lied over and over again about Obama's tax proposals, and McCain's appalling claim that Obama supported comprehensive sex education for five year olds made us all wonder just how sick someone has to be to actually say, "..and I approved this message." 

Palin quickly fell in line with her, "I told Congress, 'Thanks but no thanks' on that Bridge To Nowhere...," and then, there was the fib about selling the state plane on Ebay.

 

The McCain campaign doesn't appear to be lying much these days.  Sadly, their reasons for shutting down the lie factory have very little to do with morality and everything to do with getting caught. McCain's fellow Republicans are even taking notice. Now when Karl Rove thinks your lies have gone too far, you know you've got a very evil heart.

So when lying won't get you elected.  Try legal loopholes cheating.

From the Washington Post:

"Senator Obama's [fundraising] advantage is not emerging as people thought," said Lawrence M. Noble, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and an Obama supporter.

The reason has less to do with Obama's fundraising -- he has now raised $440 million, more than any presidential candidate in history -- than it does with McCain's ability to maneuver within the confines of the Watergate-era funding program, Noble said.

With backing from the Republican National Committee, McCain has taken advantage of loopholes such as "hybrid" television advertisements and joint fundraising committees that may keep him close to financial parity with Obama.

and from the New York Times yesterday...

“There are very, very few lawyers in the country that are better at exploiting campaign finance loopholes than Trevor Potter,” said Bradley A. Smith, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission. “Of course, that’s one of the odd things about the McCain campaign: ‘Here’s the rules we want, but we’ll play by the rules that are here.’ ”

But now, as Mr. McCain’s top legal adviser, Mr. Potter, a former F.E.C. chairman, and his team have been helping the campaign finesse the strict spending limits it faces under public financing. Although Mr. McCain is supposed to be out of the business of private fund-raising after he received his $84 million infusion from the Treasury this month, it is sometimes difficult to tell.

This month, the McCain campaign began running banner Web advertisements asking for donations to the McCain-Palin Compliance Fund, a fund-raising vehicle rooted in a 1980s F.E.C. ruling that candidates who accept public financing can still collect private donations for legal and accounting costs for complying with campaign finance laws.

Only a careful observer, however, would have noticed the advertisements’ fine print, which said donations to the fund would be used to pay for “a portion of the cost of broadcast advertising,” as well as other expenses.

The McCain campaign declined to make Mr. Potter available for an interview.

Six years after McCain's bipartisan achievement in campaign finance reform, he's already looking for ways to beat the system. The law that bears his name is now one in which he's making a mockery of.