The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire is right. Complaints are piling up at the FEC.  It's time for Senator Mitch McConnell to end the impasse.  Help us Fix The FEC:

The political gridlock that has left the Federal Election Commission unable to do its job of enforcing campaign finance laws has prompted one outside liberal watchdog group to launch a new Web site protesting the inefficiency.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today launched FixTheFec.Org, which puts the blame on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for blocking the votes needed to fill three of the six-member FEC’s four vacant seats.

Congress and the White House have been at odds over the normally mundane appointments because many leading Democrats oppose the nomination of Republican pick Hans Von Spakovsky and are pushing for separate up or down votes on each of the three pending nominees. The White House and Senate Republican leaders want one vote to approve the nominees together. The dispute has left the panel without a quorum and unable to make any rulings since December.

(For more on the stand-off, read this Wall Street Journal story.)

In any other year, the consequences of an FEC political stand-off might not be so great, but the complaints are piling up at the commission in a high-stakes election year that is shattering previous campaign finance records.

Today's Washington Post takes note of several new complaints filed with the FEC.  More importantly, the Post reports that nothing can be done with those complaints until we fix the FEC, which is why CREW launched FixTheFEC.org:

All the complaints highlight a problem that the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is now attempting to spotlight with its new website, Fixthe FEC.org.

With the senate in a prolonged stalemate over how to proceed on President Bush's nominations to fill four vacancies on the six-member commission, the FEC has been unable to do much of anything with these and other complaints. It takes four votes of the commission to rule on complaints, but the FEC has only two members.

"In the midst of the presidential campaign season, the Federal Election Commission has been rendered ineffectual," said the CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, in a statement. "Incredibly, the FEC cannot address any complaints against presidential candidates or a series of public financing questions. With no one on the watch, who's to say some unscrupulous souls won't violate the law in order to gain advantage in an election? Once an election is over there is no unseating the winners, whether or not they played by the rules."

CREW's new website, FixTheFEC.org, is getting some attention today.

Scott Shepard at "Window on Washington," the Cox News Blog reports we are trying to end the impasse at the FEC:

A private watchdog group is trying to end a congressional impasse over the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the federal agency that enforces federal campaign finance laws.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today launched a website, fixthefec.org, in an effort to pressure Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to allow a vote to get the FEC back in business.

“Since Senator McConnell has dug in his heels and refused to allow for a vote, the nation’s watchdog has been muzzled right when we need it most,” CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said. “Incredibly, the FEC cannot address any complaints against presidential candidates or a series of public financing questions.”

Jonathan Stein at the MoJo Blog thinks we're "trying the impossible":

CREW's new website is a badly needed effort, but one that is unlikely to succeed. I say that with a tone of resignation. The FEC is not a sexy topic and no one but good government reformers gets excited about it. Besides, there is no one whose interests are directly affected by the agency's work. This was a point made to me by Robert Lenhard, a former nominee for the FEC who withdrew his name from consideration recently because of the delay in getting the FEC fixed. "This is an agency without a constituency group," he said. "There is no one other than the American people in some sort of broad and abstract sense whose self-interest is advanced by the existence of the FEC. There is no group that comes forward and says, 'No, no, no. This agency's work is essential and must continue.'"

Good luck to the folks at CREW in their fight on this issue. They'll need it.