Delay on FEC Pick Irks McCain Sen. John McCain accused President Bush yesterday of breaking a written promise to speedily appoint a Democrat to the Federal Election Commission, reigniting their roiling feud just as McCain is about to regain the post of chairman of the Senate commerce committee. McCain (R-Ariz.) said he will "assume all future assurances and promises by this administration to be quite possibly insincere." In an interview, he said the White House had delayed the appointment as part of an "orchestrated and systematic undermining" of the campaign finance legislation that he long championed and Bush belatedly and grudgingly supported. The FEC is writing regulations to implement the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and the current commissioners have approved several loopholes. Supporters of McCain's proposed appointee, ethics lawyer Ellen L. Weintraub, say she would vote for stricter limitations. A White House official said last night that Bush plans to appoint Weintraub this morning -- less than 24 hours after the FEC finished the bulk of its work on the law. McCain called the timing cynical. "The Bush administration has broken their word on an issue that has been of transcendent importance to me, and that's hard to get over," said McCain, who ran against Bush in the Republican primaries of 2000. "It will be harder for them to do business with the Senate, since a lot of it is done by handshake."

All I can say is: what took you so long to figure it out John?