The Republican nominee to the FEC that brought on stonewalling from both parties, Hans von Spakovsky, has withdrawn his name from consideration. His departure from the list of nominees (Republicans had been holding out for a single up or down vote on all the new members, Obama and Feingold both put a “hold” on von Spakovsky’s nomination) will allow the committee to move forward to a quorum in the near future, and, perhaps, might settle some of the thorny campaign finance questions raised this cycle. Those questions include, of course, the legal status of McCain’s decision to go backsies on public funding, as well the ever-evolving role of “outside” groups in elections. Jurist has lots of background here.
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Political Picures of the Week, May 18-25
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures of the past week from the Beltway and beyond.
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The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy
More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.
