John McCain, lawbreaker?

Last night on 60 Minutes, John McCain said outright that he would seek to make Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic attorney general of New York state, his head of the SEC. Transcript:

McCain: "Technically he can't be, quote, fired. But I'll tell you: When I'm President, if I want somebody to resign, they resign."

Pelley: "I'm curious. If you wanna fire Chris Cox, the chairman of the SEC, who would you replace him with?"

McCain: "This may sound a little— unusual, but I've admired— Andrew Cuomo. I think he is somebody who could restore some credibility, lend some bipartisanship to this effort."

Pelley: "He's a Democrat."

McCain: "Oh, yes."

Pelley: "He served in the cabinet of President Clinton."

McCain: "Yes. And he did a good job. And he has respect. And he has prestige."

Cuomo's office responded that such talk was inappropriate in light of its own probes into the current market turmoil. But it may well be inappropriate in another way.

It's illegal for presidential candidates to promise or pledge an appointment before the election. Here's the relevant language from the United States Code:


Now, obviously the hard-to-prove part here is "for the purpose of procuring support for his candidacy." And of course I understand that no authority figure is going to bust John McCain on this point. But this kind of thing deserves our attention. This law became law because candidates used to routinely offer important posts to people who could deliver votes as part of political deals, either for their support or for the support of constituencies with whom they were popular.

Whether McCain crossed a legal line or not, that is essentially what he's doing here. I happen to know Andrew Cuomo and I think he was a mostly successful cabinet official under Clinton. But let's just say that I bet McCain would've been somewhat less likely to mention Cuomo's name if he weren't Catholic.