Donald McGahn: Buh Bye and Fuck You Very Much

“Who???”  I hadn’t heard of Donald McGahn either until I saw this article yesterday.  If you’ve liked the billions of dollars in anonymous undisclosed “contributions” to political campaigns, you can thank Donald McGahn.  He was one of the six-member Federal Election Commission (FEC) until he resigned two days ago.

I never felt that strongly about the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, since (or so I thought) all we have to do is follow the money and see who owns whom.  Then suddenly all these non-profit “charity” organizations started popping out of the woodwork, donating gazillions of dollars to rightwing causes and candidates.  And since these organizations are disguised as “charity” groups, they’re tax-exempt and they don’t have to disclose their donors.

Needless to say, the other two Republican members of the FEC — yes, McGahn is a Republican, in case you had to ask — have consistently joined McGahn in derailing every attempt to require billionaires to crawl out from under their rocks and identify themselves when they purchase an election.  But at least McGahn is finally leaving.  His parting words:

“I’ve been there a little over five years, and I felt like I had done all I could do. It was time for new challenges.”

Yup, your work here is done, Asshole.  So many more things to fuck up, so little time.

There are now two vacancies in the FEC (another commissioner resigned earlier this year).  Obama has already nominated two replacements:  Ann Ravel (Democrat) and Lee Goodman (Republican).  The linked article says “Both are widely expected to be confirmed by the full Senate.”

Why of course.  Surely the Senate wouldn’t be planning any sort of obstruction or filibustering now, would they?

I’m not usually in favor of litmus tests, but in this case, Obama and the Democrats should make absolutely certain that both of these nominees will require DISCLOSURE of all political “contributions.”  If not, replace him/her with someone who will.  And if a potential commissioner promises to crack down on these cowards who make secret donations, and then gets filibustered, use the Nuclear Option.