Jonathan Zasloff accuses the MSM of pro-McCain bias.

Should be an easy target, but he misses

February 19, 2008

Notice something there? Oh yes: while the story reports McCain's accusations, it never once mentions that John McCain essentially perpetrated a fraud on the taxpayers. As Mark Schmitt reported just yesterday, McCain secured a sweetheart loan from a Maryland bank by agreeing, in the event that his campaign did not go well, to drop out and then re-enter the race simply to get federal matching funds.

[snip]

let's keep score: it is now 48 hours since Schmitt has reported his findings. Still no coverage from the MSM. Lots on Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain, though. How long will it be before the media decides to report on the story? I'm not holding my breath.

I learned about the loan from the Washington Post, not Mark Schmitt

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 16, 2008; Page A10

John McCain's cash-strapped campaign borrowed $1 million from a Bethesda bank two weeks before the New Hampshire primary by pledging to enter the public financing system if his bid for the presidency faltered, newly disclosed records show.

Mosk reported on the loan before Schmitt did. In fact, Schmitt cited Mosk.

"Based on the Washington Post report, I inferred that McCain had not excluded public matching funds from the collateral for his additional loan."

So Zasloff is claiming that the MSM is not reporting on something first reported in the MSM.

Odd.

Scmitt does quote at length from the loan contract. This leaves no doubt about McCain's sleaziness (and on an issue which he raised based on Obama's much lesser sleaziness).

The second loan, for $1 million, was actually a modification of the first, and so it continued to exclude the certification for matching funds from the loan's collateral. But it included this remarkable addition (which I'm going to quote in full just so no one thinks I used an ellipsis to distort the meaning):

Additional Requirement. Borrower and lender agree that if Borrower [McCain's campaign commitee] withdraws from the public matching funds program, but John McCain then does not win the next primary or caucus in which he is active (which can be any primary or caucus held the same day) or does not place at least within 10 percentage points of the winner of that primary or caucus, Borrower will cause John McCain to remain an active political candidate and Borrower will, within thirty (3) days of said primary or caucus (i) reapply for public matching funds, (ii) grant to Lender, as additional collateral for the Loan, a first priority perfected security interest in and to all Borrower's right, title and interest in and to the public matching funds program, and (iii) execute and deliver to Lender such documents, instruments and agreements as Lender may require with respect to the foregoing.

Yep, to dodge the rule that using the public matching funds certification as collateral for a loan implies accepting the corresponding limits on spending, McCain gave a bank the power to decide whether his campaign continued.

Schmitt's link to the relevant *.pdf