McCain campaign accuses Obama campaign of “boys club bullying” in campaign finance fracas.

As you know, Sens. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) got the ‘VIP treatment’ from scandal-ridden Countrywide Financial. But what about the other 98 members of the senate. Who’d they get their mortgages from? And did they get any special senatorial consideration.

Well, Eamon Javers and Martin Kady II of The Politico decided to pick up the phone and ask. They’re asking every member of the senate who their lender is, who they contacted to get the loan and whether they got any special deals.

You can see the results here.

Not too many big surprises so far. But I can tell you from experience that the early responders are always the clean ones. (Not to say late responders are necessarily dirty; but early responders are always clean.) A lot of senators haven’t answered yet. So it’ll get more interesting as we see who the hold outs are.

Late Update: TPM Reader WB notes that Pennsylvania senators — Bob Casey (D) and his predecessor canophile Rick Santorum (R) — have also gotten a bit of the VIP treatment, though not from Countrywide.

The McCain campaign, through Cindy McCain, has been pushing the attacks on the Obama family’s patriotism by pushing the Michelle Obama ‘proud of my country’ quote. “Everyone has their own experience,” said McCain when asked about the comments yesterday. “I don’t know why she said what she said. All I know is that I have always been proud of my country.”

But tonight Dan Abrams of MSNBC found these quotes of John McCain saying he’d never loved away before he was taken captive in North Vietnam …

I mentioned earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC’s rules, we’re still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)

I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He’s really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn’t — the Republican head of the FEC — said he’s not allowed to do that. He can’t opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can.

The most generous interpretation of what happened is that McCain’s lawyer came up with an ingenious legal two step that allowed him to double dip in the campaign finance system, eat his cake and spend it too. But even if you buy that line, successful gaming of the system doesn’t really count as strict adherence. And the point is irrelevant since the head of the FEC — a Republican — says McCain cannot do this on his own.

Like everything that has to do with campaign finance, the details are a little … well, detailed. But they’re worth understanding. Last February in this episode of TPMtv, we explained just how McCain cheated the campaign finance laws …

Obama’s fund-raising haul could top half a billion dollars — that and the morning’s other political news at TPM Election Central.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is in front of the House Judiciary Committee testifying about his knowledge of the Plame leak. We’ll keep you posted at TPMmuckraker of any new developments.

Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) has already gone after McClellan pretty hard.

Late Update: McClellan will resume testifying later today after the FISA debate in the House.

The House is debating the new FISA compromise legislation now, including telecom immunity. A vote is expected within the hour.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Scott McClellan has been recessed for the duration of the FISA debate.

Late Update: Nancy Pelosi will vote for the compromise plan. A summary of the vociferous opposition from the House floor here.

The House oversight committee was supposed to vote this morning on whether to hold EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson (and an OMB official) in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas.

But the EPA and the White House have now invoked executive privilege, committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) just announced, so he’s delaying the vote to assess the privilege claims.

Keep in mind that the EPA and White House have been stonewalling Waxman for months, but have waited until now to formally invoke executive privilege.

It’s all part of the Bush Administration’s overarching strategy for its last year in office: Delay. Delay. Delay.

Those 20-something Florida arms dealers have reportedly been picked up by the feds and are being charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act.

TPM Election Central reports that MoveOn is shuttering its 527 outfit for 2008, in response to pressure from the Obama campaign.