ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — The Democratic Party filed a complaint against Sen. John McCain on Monday, calling on regulators to investigate the Republican presidential candidate’s decision to withdraw from the primary’s public financing system.

In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, the Democratic National Committee contends McCain cannot reject the public funds — and accompanying spending limits — because he faces questions over a loan he obtained last year.

McCain notified the commission early this month that he did not intend to accept $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary. That would free him from spending caps that would restrict his ability to campaign between now and the GOP national convention in September.

FEC Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain last week, said the senator must explain a $4 million line of credit he secured last year and get approval from four of the commission’s six members before withdrawing from the public financing system.

USA Today

The controversy here is that McCain’s campaign took a questionable loan out that the Democrats say fall under the umbrella of the public financing rules.  McCain could easily clear this up by getting a ruling from the FEC to allow him to withdraw from using public funds, but there are four vacancies on the FEC due to the Democrats holding up Bush’s nominations so there can be no quorum called.

It’s rather ironic that the man who authored McCain-Feingold is now getting smacked by similar campaign finance rules.