Last week Senators McCain and Feingold once again introduced a bill to “reform” the FEC. We chuckle at the periodic efforts by certain reformers to create a “tough” FEC, mainly because the idea fails to understand that the reason campaign finance regulation hasn’t worked is the law, not the FEC. (We think it’s a bad idea, since most proposals would allow for more partisanship at the FEC, but that’s another issue.)
But the funniest part of the bill, which is in there every time they introduce it, is what we call the Potter exception. The bill would prohibit from serving on the new agency any current or former member of the Federal Election Commission, “subject to a term limit.” Now, what exactly is the point of this? What disqualifies former commissioners from serving on the new commission? And more particularly, what disqualifies only former commissioners subject to term limits from serving on the new commission? Is there any possible rationale at work?
There are currently eight living former commissioners who were never subject to term limits while on the Commission. Six of them are octogenarians who have been out of public life for years, and the others are Tom Josefiak and Trevor Potter, the latter of whom is John McCain’s campaign counsel. Hmm… does that explain anything?
Well, we don’t know what is running through the minds of the “reform” lobby, but we’d love to see just one reporter ask Senator McCain why former commissioners not subject to term limits are qualified, while former commissioners subject to term limits are not qualified.
