Did McCain Break the Law in Mentioning Andrew Cuomo

This article was written by Michael Tomasky and appears in the Guardian. Just another reason not to vote for McCain.

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.

[...]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:

Whoever, being a candidate, directly or indirectly promises or pledges the appointment, or the use of his influence or support for the appointment of any person to any public or private position or employment, for the purpose of procuring support in his candidacy shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

This idiot can't seem to get anything right.

Every day, another financial institution shutters its doors. Over 600,000 thousand U.S. jobs have been lost so far this year. Gas, food, and health care prices are through the roof. The writing is on the wall: the American economy is teetering on the edge of collapse, and American families are paying the price.
But despite the mounting evidence that deregulation has been a major contributing factor in the current financial crisis, John McCain wants to implement the same, failed Bush-McCain economic policies on our health care system.

[...]On Sunday, the Washington Post[...]John McCain wrote that "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
"You would think that the 'going out of business sales' on Wall Street would demonstrate what can happen when there is no watchdog keeping an eye on big business," said Andy Stern. "Now, John McCain wants our health care system run the same way. Aren't families struggling enough?
"I guess it should come as no surprise that someone who supported George Bush 90 percent of the time and has insiders and lobbyists running his campaign thinks our banking system should be considered a model for success."