Karma! Did McCain's Own Loophole Buy The Clothes That Hurt His Campaign and Split His Party?

You know what they say about payback.

The clothes purchased by the RNC for Sarah Palin may turn out to be the final blow to the McCain campaign. If so, it will be poetic justice for the self-styled maverick who always tried to keep a card up his sleeve -- especially when it came to "reform." Because McCain stacked the deck for himself years ago, he may just have drawn a losing hand.

This flap is transforming Palin from a merely unpopular figure into a Marie Antoinette-like one. Republicans are falling all over themselves to blame each other. First Palin, for whom loyalty appears to be an unknown concept, blamed the RNC that purchased her wardrobe. (Did they force her to buy her little girl a Louis Vuitton bag, too? Really?)

And check out this video of RNC Chair Mike Duncan blaming the McCain campaign. Note how he deliberately uses the word "coordinated." He says: "This was a coordinated expense that the campaign asked us to pay for. It was entirely legal..."

There are serious questions about whether the clothing purchase was, in fact, "entirely legal." But if Duncan is referring to the legality of coordinating expenditures between a party's National Committee and its presidential candidate's campaign, he's probably right. It is legal -- thanks in no small part to John McCain.

Limitations on such coordinated expenditures had been in place for decades, until McCain gave the nod to lifting them. He helped attach a provision doing just that onto a bill covering 527s. As noted at the time, McCain wasn't just helping his own party with this move, since the RNC has historically always outraised the DNC. He was also helping his own expected candidacy.

McCain slipped the clutch on his "maverick" gear in order to benefit himself. It took a few more steps, but the long-standing ban on coordinating Committee expenditures with a campaign -- a practice rightly seen as a way to get around spending limits -- was finally eliminated. As a result, the candidate who sanctimoniously attacks Obama for bypassing public funding can take nearly $20 million of RNC money and spend it as he sees fit. That's in addition to the money he's getting from taxpayers.

Meanwhile, our intrepid Governor from Alaska insists that she'll go back to wearing "consignment clothes" when this is over. (Is she saying she expects to lose? After all, you can't really wear pea coats or secondhand outfits to White House functions. Man, she really is off-message, isn't she?)

So, let's see: Because McCain didn't vet his own VP choice, she became an embarrassment. Because McCain allowed this loophole, he was able to have the RNC buy these clothes. Because the RNC bought these clothes, Palin -- his greatest liability -- became even more of a problem. Because Palin turned on the RNC, the RNC is striking back at the McCain campaign. And because of all the above, McCain's campaign is sinking even further and the party's even more badly split. (Watch that Duncan video, if you haven't already. This guy is pissed.)

Vetting ... integrity ... demanding accountability ... overruling your people when they bring you a bad idea ... and all the other executive actions that weren't taken by Sen. McCain ... That's called "leadership."

And being undone by a loophole you supported in order to benefit yourself? That's called "karma."

RJ Eskow blogs when he can at:

A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog
Future-While-U-Wait

Follow RJ Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow

Comments

[JungleRoses]

Why didn't McCain call his supporter Wal-Mart for a selected wardrobe ensemble for Palin?

[KAYElight]

Has anyone read the book "Dress for Success"? How much more should an elected official appear before millions of people around the world? The networks include very expensive wardrobes for their men and women who appears on camera before the viewers across the world in certain time frame! While--Gov. Palin is on view almost 24/7! Also-reporters attacked how unpresidential Palin looked! Meaning--her wardrobe! That is not a rumour--I heard it! So--GOV. PALIN DRESSED FOR SUCCESS! Read the book it is very good! This should give Gov. Palin some slack--because she doesn't wear all slacks now! Thank God!

[PitbullCatcher]

McCain is wasting his time on this “ SPREADING THE WEALTH” issue. Here is the reason why. In American government we ALREADY mix socialism with capitalism to get the our needs accomplished as a nation. People…socialism is not a new word for this country. It’s all about how you spin it. If you attach socialism it to a crooked nation or deceitful person it sounds bad. If you get a SOCIAL security check it sounds good.

Socialism - general term for the political and economic theory that advocates a system of collective or government ownership and management of the means of production and distribution of goods. Because of the collective nature of socialism, it is to be contrasted to the doctrine of the sanctity of private property that characterizes capitalism. Where capitalism stresses competition and profit.

HERE ARE SOME OF AMERICA’S SOCIALIST PROGRAMS THAT SPREADS THE NATION’S WEALTH AROUND.


Government Worker Programs
Civil Service Retirement Systems
Federal Employee Retirement Systems
Railroad Retirement System

Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Programs
Public Housing
Rental Vouchers & Certificates
Section 8 Housing Vouchers
Shelter Plus Care
Single Room Occupancy
Low Income Home Energy Assistance

Social Security Programs
Social Security (OASDI)
Unemployment Insurance
Temporary Disability Insurance
Medicare
Medicaid
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan

Welfare Programs
Supplemental Security Income
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Food Stamp Program
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
National School Lunch Program
School Breakfast Program
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Taxes

That 700 Billion bailout package

[bluekatz]

Socialism is the new scare word to those who do not have a clue as to what it means. They are pandering to the ignorants and the mindless drones who know not what they repeat. I can assure you that most of those who are calling Obama a socialist are on some type of government program. When you dumb down people its easy to pass a whole lot of nonsense their way for they have not one ounce of a clue as to what you truly mean. If it sounds good, go for it mentality,

[NationalTreasure]

+RJ

At last you are starting to realize that McCain-Feingold was not the great reform that it has been made out to be.

There are lots of other problems with McCain-Feingold that are quite horrid such as the creation of 527's which are simply a different class of taxexempt groups who get to sling the political dirt.

McCain-Feingold started out a a piece of legislation with great promise but after the republicans gave it a great working over McCain-Feingold became an over hyped and pretty useless piece of legislation.

[Buffy57]

Big dem here, but another non-starter story. Call off the inaugural ball and get down to business.

Who can dance while the world is burning?

[TRYKER]

If ever there was a time for an Inaugural Ball, this election if hard won by Obama certainly deserves a Ball.
The man has worked for 2 years and will be at work for 4 years non-stop, to deny him a Ball after all this would be tantamount to saying, "But You're Different"!!!!
If you're worried about paying for this Ball, take up a collection.

[rpyon21]

As the election day nears, the words Sarah Palin and liability seem to becoming more and more entangled. This article only further questions if Palin should be vice-president.

If you go to The Daily Source's special page of video clips on Palin, you can become better acquainted with Sarah Pain, the candidate, and then make an informed decision on if she should be vice-president or a presidential candidate in 2012. Go to www.dailysource.org/palinvideos.

[Sumocat]

"You know what they say about payback." -- Something about it being a hockey mom without lipstick.

[bronceye]

That other loophole that he installed for himself helped him ride out the primary and get the nomination. That loophole was being able to use the private jet of his wife.

[knowBuddhaU]

O brother, my Brother RJ! What a great post, both in style and substance.

I thank you a million times for not equating karma with luck. Karma means "your doing."

Global warming? Industrial man's karma, especially those who keep the profits while socializing the costs. Ain't that socialism?

The miserable world in which we now suffer is our collective karma, our collective doing. It is manifestly and grossly unjust. What are we gonna do about it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Changing the Way Society Changes: Transposing Social Activism into a Dramatic Key

http://www.buddhistethics.org/6/hershock991.html#Change

"What we begin seeing instead is the possibility of changing society through directly and jointly revising the valence of our dramatic interdependence or karma as such. Although the analogy has limits, just as shifts between the "two women" and "vase" views of the standard gestalt drawing do not require redrawing the picture line by line, dramatic changes in the structure of society need not depend on rebuilding its institutional structures brick by brick or law by law.

Importantly, if changing our patterns of attention necessarily changes the pattern of our interdependence as such, and if all things are dynamic or irreducibly characterized by impermanence, nothing can be more deleterious in our effort to relieve suffering or end conflict than inflexible habits of thought, speech, and action. Meaningful -- that is, karmically effective -- solutions to our personal and communal troubles can never be imposed or universally legislated. They must be improvised.

[mouselion]

Exactly. Karma is not some magical floo-floo thing.

It simply means "action".

[NationalTreasure]

karma also means fate, destiny, and aura

[DarthVector]

His karma ran over his dogma.

[NationalTreasure]

lol

[apoyo]

It's Shakespearean.

[MissDaphne]

It's an opera. Or a Stephen Sondheim musical.

[Adirondacker]

.....Meanwhile, our intrepid Governor from Alaska insists that she'll go back to wearing "consignment clothes" when this is over......

The RNC has said it will donate the clothes to charity. Probably someplace like the Wasilla Goodwill store. At 9:01 AM on Wednesday Nov. 5th. Governor Palin will breeze in at 9:03 and squeal with delight because a consignment of really nice clothes that fit her perfectly just arrived.....

[IneptitudePrideB4Fall]

And just how much money will second-hand clothes fetch in a thrift shop? Not much! So that $150K Palin wardrobe is essentially a gift to the Palin campaign. And notice, My Friends, that the RNC only told us that it would donate Palin's designer outfits to charity when the media asked questions about the fancy duds and the huge expenditures. Just another Gotcha You Betcha moment from the Rethuglicans.

..........­..........­.......

[anothervoice2]

Exactly - she will buy them on the cheap at a local Alaska charity house and continue to wear them.

[straighttalkonmccain]

In her talks today, Palin didn't help herself regarding the whole controversy. She said there was a double standard (did she forget the Edwards' haircut?) and that she didn't weant to talk about it, yet kept talking about it. It was a bad PR move, but just goes to show that she's not quite the reformer she keeps telling us she is. http://straighttalkonmccain.blogspot.com/

[newpantaloons]

You have to be intelligent enough to know what a "reformer" does. Neither one of these so-called "mavericks" are that smart.