Hans von Spakovsky, the Bush administration’s point man on illegal voter suppression at the DoJ, has been nominated as a member of the Federal Elections Commission.
Democratic senators, with Feingold and Obama taking the lead, have said that he is not acceptable, and the Republicans are blocking any vote on any other nominees unless they are all voted on at once.
Bush could theoretically make recess appointments, but he’s already cut a deal with Harry Reid not to make recess appointments after Reid announced plans to keep the Senate in session with local members to prevent this.
The problem is that quorum for the FEC is 4, and without these approvals, they would have only two members.
Fred Wertheimer, states it thusly:
Either one of those scenarios is “fraught with potential danger,” Fred Wertheimer, the executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog Democracy 21, told me.
If the FEC were crippled, that would be bad, he said, creating a situation where outside groups funded by millionaires (like the Swift Boat Vets) could run amok in a campaign year. “That would be a license to steal and to completely ignore campaign finance laws.”
But if the commission were stocked with the president’s appointees, that would be much worse. “You could have an agency that leaves one party free to do whatever it wants, while raising concerns that the other party is breaking the law.
“The whole fight at the Justice Department over the firing of the U.S. attorneys has arisen over misusing the criminal justice system in order to influence political results…. Now, if you don’t get some legitimate form of a commission ready to go for the 2008 election, you face the same danger, except with far greater stakes involved, mainly the presidency, the Senate and House — who wins and who loses.”
I tend to agree that no FEC would be worse than an FEC run by Bush and His Evil Minions&trade.
At least both sides would have an equal opportunity to break laws with no FEC.
One note, look at his picture: 
, he really does look like those photographs of those 30 something SS camp guards one sees in history books.