Missing the Mission | A Nonprofit Comes Perilously Close to Partisan Lobbying

Citizens Against Government Waste, according to its website, "is a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization representing more than one million members and supporters nationwide [whose] mission is to eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in the federal government."

Fair enough.

But when John McCain started getting beaten up by populist Democrats for supporting an Air Force decision to award an enormous contract to build refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman and its European partner, he turned to Citizens Against Government Waste for some decidedly partisan support. The Washington Post reported the other day that McCain’s team called CAGW seeking information about the organization’s previous statements on the matter, and within a short time, "a vitriolic advertising campaign defending the tanker deal" has been launched.

Okay, you can make the argument that CAGW is staying true to its mission if the basis of its argument is that the Northrop deal will save tax dollars.

But. As the Post notes:

Formed in 1984, CAGW has long promoted McCain’s image as a taxpayer advocate. Since 2006, the nonprofit’s board of directors has included Orson Swindle, who also works on veterans issues as a volunteer for the McCain campaign.

CAGW has a lobbying arm, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, that has twice supported McCain for president. Its PAC has donated $11,000 in cash to McCain or a PAC under his control since 2004 — 20 times as much cash as it has given any other candidate, records show. …

Swindle is a friend of McCain who shared a cell with him as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. … He defended the senator’s war record this spring after it was questioned by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.). Swindle also has appeared in several McCain campaign ads online.

I’m not sure this passes the sniff test of whether CAGW is lobbying in violation of tax guidelines, but it comes close. Too close, in my view, especially during a presidential campaign. | 501(c)