Seriously... the fact that John McCain could be hamstrung by the very campaign finance reform ideas that he has pushed so tirelessly for... well... it makes me feel kinda funny, like when we used to climb the rope in gym class:

The nation's top federal election official told Sen. John McCain yesterday that he cannot immediately withdraw from the presidential public financing system as he had requested, a decision that threatens to dramatically restrict his spending until the general election campaign begins in the fall.
...
The prospect of being financially hamstrung by the very fundraising system he helped create is the latest in a series of bitter challenges for the presumed GOP nominee, who still faces a fractured conservative coalition as he assumes the mantle of party leadership.

And here is some more from the Wall Street Journal:

Last week, we wrote about the $3 million loan his campaign took out to keep his campaign afloat in November, putting up its fund-raising lists and a life insurance policy as collateral. If the campaign had gone south, Mr. McCain would still have been able to tap into donors from his position as a powerful Senator on the Commerce Committee to make good on the debt. More cash started to come in, but now it turns out that Mr. McCain's campaign looked into borrowing another $1 million at its moment of peril before the New Hampshire primary, this time pledging its eligibility for federal matching campaign funds.

Here's where the explanation gets really lawyered up. The McCain campaign hurries to say it didn't actually surrender its public funding certification as collateral, oh no. The campaign applied to the Federal Election Commission for matching funds, and once that application was approved went to a bank and opened a line of credit based on the possibility that they might someday reapply for matching funds if the campaign faltered. "We never claimed that the matching funds were collateral for the loan," says McCain lawyer Trevor Potter. "This was all a hypothetical future transaction." (We wish we could get bank loans like that.)

Only a politician could think that he could use the possibility of federal matching funds as collateral for a loan, without actually committing to taking the money.  Can I use the possibility of a pay raise this year to help get a mortgage?  I love it when people are hoisted by their own petard.  Karma's a bitch ain't it John?