It's all well and good for reform advocates on Capitol Hill to pick a fight with the White House over who sits on the Federal Election Commission. Certainly the numerous partisan spats and stalemates that have brought FEC enforcement to a grinding halt this year suggest that the agency could do with some new commissioners.
But the hold imposed by Sens. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., to block the confirmation of FEC nominee John Sullivan glosses over a more fundamental problem. The real reason the FEC can't function is that its structure and appointments process are long overdue for an overhaul, writes Eliza Newlin Carney in her weekly column "Rules of The Game."
Some have laid the blame at the feet of President Obama for failing to follow through on promised reforms, both at the FEC and in the presidential public financing system. Obama pledged to fix public financing as a presidential candidate -- even as he rejected Treasury funding and hauled in record amounts of private money.
No wonder progressive activists are getting restless. Reform advocates fret that if the president doesn't follow through soon, the next election will kick into gear and their narrow window to enact changes will close. Feingold has drafted a bill with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to revamp the presidential public financing system, but it appears to be languishing at the White House.
"It's really clear that nothing else can move until the president moves," noted Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center.
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