It started here....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022603328.html
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/02/27/john-mccain-is-screwed.aspx
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022603328.html
..and continues here...Wednesday, February 27, 2008; Page A06
Sen. John McCain's campaign and a Bethesda bank strongly defended $4 million in loans yesterday, as Democrats questioned their legality and said that the way they were secured requires the Arizona Republican to abide by federal spending restrictions.
This Story
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Loans Could Paint McCain Into Corner
Red to Black
Trevor Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman who is McCain's lawyer, wrote in a letter to the nation's top election official yesterday that the loans were proper and that they should not prevent McCain from withdrawing from the presidential public financing system.
On Monday, the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint with the FEC arguing that the way the loans were structured -- by using the promise of federal matching funds as collateral -- requires McCain to remain in the system. McCain "secured a $4 million line of credit to keep his campaign afloat by using public financing as collateral. He should follow the law," said Howard Dean, the DNC chairman
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/02/27/john-mccain-is-screwed.aspx
This is ironic, especially after McCain/Feingold..you live by the sword..you die by the sword...McCain secured two loans totaling about $4 million last fall, apparently using as collateral the federal matching funds he'd receive if he opted to into the public campaign-finance system. But simply by using potential public money as collateral, McCain effectively did opt into the system. That means he effectively agreed to cap his campaign spending at $54 million prior to the GOP convention in September. Alas, McCain had spent $49 million as of January 31. So we're looking at more or less zero permissible spending between now and September. (Since he's surely spent $5 million since January.)