The Blessed Company of St. McCain

So John Hagee's going to open up in the Sunday New York Times, and among other things he's going to reiterate that John W. McCain actively sought out his endorsement. Which isn't surprising, since in addition to anti-Semitic, Catholic-hating bitter-ender Rapturists, McCain also has people like this on the payroll.

A McCain campaign aide actively pushed an incendiary, racially-charged video that uses the controversial words of Barack Obama's pastor to tar Obama as unpatriotic -- despite the fact that McCain himself has suggested that Obama shouldn't be held accountable for Wright's views.

The aide, Soren Dayton, who works in McCain's political department, has been suspended from the campaign, a McCain spokesperson, Jill Hazelbaker, confimed to me.

Suspended. With full pay and a pat on the head, I imagine. It matters more, after all, that he got the information out there, rather than the discipline.

In addition, here are some of the delightful chaps that populated McCain's fundraiser in London, which was held during a taxpayer-funded Senate trip (which he's reimbursing the government for but as woefully inaccurate levels):

Proper attire for the luncheon affair is “lounge wear,” according to the Washington Post, which also reported that the event will be held at Spencer House on St. James’s Place, “by kind permission” of Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild.

The latter “may become the richest Rothschild of them all,” according to a profile last year in the New York Times. The story said Nathaniel Rothschild was “close to becoming a billionaire through a web of private equity investments” in Eastern Europe, and that he was “a principal adviser to Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest oligarchs in Russia.” Indeed, the Daily Mail has said that Rothschild’s wealth had “been accrued in his role as the adviser to” Deripaska.

Deripaska’s name might ring a bell. Back in early 2006, lobbyist Rick Davis, who now serves as McCain’s campaign advisor, helped introduce the senator and the oligarch during an international economic conference in Switzerland. McCain didn’t do anything for Deripaska after the meeting, but the Russian was grateful for the introduction. Deripaska wrote “a thank-you note to Davis and his partner and offer[ed] to assist them in a subsequent business deal,” according to the Washington Post.

Of course, there's no need to chastise McCain for hanging out with rogues, haters, and rubes, when in fact, he's a convicted felon in his own right.

McCain has now spent $58.4 million in his primary bid, surpassing the $50 million limit he would have faced if he participated in the public financing system he had been certified to join. McCain has decided not to accept the public matching funds, but the FEC wants him to assure regulators that he did not use the promise of public money as collateral for a $4 million loan.

McCain and his lawyers said the loan was secured with other collateral, thus freeing him to spend as much money as he wishes on his primary campaign. The Democratic National Committee has filed a complaint with the FEC arguing McCain cannot withdraw from the public finance system without FEC approval.

Until the FEC releases him from the public system, McCain with each passing day is breaking the law by spending over the legal limit. The recommended sentence is FIVE YEARS IN PRISON.