Kerry prepares to ignore a campaign funding pledge...again

The campaign buzz is that John Kerry absolutely intends to accept public funding of his campaign after the Democratic National Convention…

"We are taking the federal money," Kerry finance chair Louis Susman said yesterday. Kerry campaign spokesman Michael Meehan was more adamant: "We are not opting out. We are taking public funds. No, N-O, no, we are not opting out."

...um, unless he doesn’t:

Kerry officials voiced one caveat: They would reopen the debate over rejecting federal money if they learned that President Bush planned to use privately raised money to finance his general election campaign.

The Kerry campaign is itching to spend beyond the limits of the public financing rules, as evidenced by that disastrous trial balloon to “acknowledge but not accept the nomination” in Boston and extend out privately-funded campaign spending.

Here’s my prediction: the Kerry campaign will file a wafer-thin grievance against the Bush campaign sometime after their convention and declare that the GOP has violated campaign finance rules. They won’t even need to produce evidence because a compliant media will simply assume it’s true and report it as such. Then they’ll cast off public financing and rake in (even more) cash from George Soros and Barbra Streisand.

How do I know that John Kerry will find some pretext to violate campaign finance rules? He’s done it once before:

The candidates [Kerry and former MA governor William Weld] made a personal pledge to each other to abide by a cap on overall spending and media costs. They also agreed not to spend more than $500,000 in personal wealth. But in the final weeks, with Weld outspending Kerry, the incumbent blew off the cap, mortgaged the Beacon Hill townhouse he jointly owned with his wife [that sounds familiar!], and poured $1.7 million into his campaign kitty. He claimed Weld was buying more media time than their agreement allowed, but there was scant evidence to back that up.

John Kerry will do anything to win, including violating the very laws he boasts to have sponsored. Mark my words: he’ll do it again.

[Cross-posted on Blogs for Bush]