Looks like McCain’s maverick ways are rubbing off on others and causing them to do some crazy things… like, say, break the law.

WaPo:

A Canadian newspaper reported Thursday that Friday’s scheduled $100-a-plate luncheon speech by Sen. John McCain in Ottawa was organized in part by U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, a former South Carolina lawmaker whom President Bush appointed in 2005.

Democrats pointed out the article late Thursday night, and alleged that Wilkins’s actions could be construed as a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits many kinds of political activities by government employees.

This ties in nicely with Scott McClellan’s testimony today. The main theme of his book is that this White House operates in a “permanent campaign mode,” where every action they take is politically calculated to help GOP electoral prospects. We saw it with the clueless Lurita Doan and we see it now with David Wilkins: It doesn’t matter if there are laws on the books prohibiting certain conduct; if it helps get Republicans elected, do it. And it appears that if it helps fill McCain’s empty coffers, he doesn’t have much of a problem with it either.