John McCain doesn't think the rules apply to him:

In a related development, the McCain campaign said Thursday it would reimburse the federal government about $3,000 for political travel expenses incurred during his current trip to the Middle East and Europe. McCain on Thursday was in Britain, where he attended a $1,000-per-person fundraising lunch at London's Spencer House. McCain has been traveling with Sens. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., both supporters of his candidacy. The group had already been to Iraq, Jordan and Israel.

The campaign has defended the mostly taxpayer financed trip as crucial for members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. But Democratic National Committee General Counsel Joe Sandler said McCain should cover a greater portion of the trip with campaign funds.

Here's Sandler, via release:

"The 2007 ethics reform law and the regulations implementing it require that when a candidate mixes campaign and official travel when using a government plane, the campaign travelers must reimburse the government for the full cost of an equivalent round trip charter flight.  Reasonable estimates place the cost of a one-way charter flight from Washington to London at between $20,000 and $56,000.  As a result, McCain's stated intention to reimburse the federal government $3,000 almost certainly falls far short of what the law requires."

We're not talking about a whole lot of money here, a difference of as little as $17,000 and as much as $53,000. But the principle of this does matter. What's clear here is that McCain -- the man who has tried to cultivate an image as a reformer, the one who has tried to limit the corruptive power of money in politics -- apparently believes that he is above the law. And this is the first time. There are already serious questions as to whether McCain is operating outside the bounds of campaign finance law by spending more than he is allowed to under the public financing system he opted into by using the promise of federal funds to secure a loan and by using his participation in the program to secure ballot access (which, in and of itself, is worth upwards of $3 million).

The real question now, then, is whether the media will hold McCain to account for his repeated actions to undermine the spirit and letter of campaign finance and ethics regulations. Truth be told, I'm not holding my breath...