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The McCain campaign released a new web ad that uses Barack Obama's past statements on public financing to attack the Democrat for turning down the funds.

Entitled "Words," the ad opens with a shot of Obama saying, "Don't tell me words don't matter."

It then cuts to Obama expressing his support for public financing and saying he'd sit down with John McCain "to make sure the system works for everybody." Then the ad shows Obama making the announcement that his campaign would turn down the public funds and proceeds to highlight newspaper editorials calling the Illinois senator's move "opportunistic" and "disingenuous," among other things.

The ad ends with an on-screen caption that reads, "CHANGE That Works For Him: Breaking His Word."

Watch the ad below.

The Democratic National Committee announced that it intends to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to try to compel the Federal Election Commission to examine whether John McCain broke election laws when his campaign rejected public fundraising, the Associated Press reports.

When McCain turned down a taxpayer-funded $5.8 million, his campaign was able to skirt spending limits that would have been in place until the Republican Party convention.

The issue in question is a $4 million line of credit obtained by the McCain campaign last year, which the DNC has argued was a violation of federal regulations. The McCain campaign and its bankers have denied that claim.

The lawsuit is a follow-up to a complaint the DNC filed with the FEC in February, which was not acted upon, since four FEC nominees were waiting Senate confirmation and the body lacked a quorum.

*Update: Later on Tuesday, RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross called the lawsuit "meritless," the AP reports. Cairncross said that McCain was entitled to withdraw from the public finance system because he didn't take public funds during the primary season.

From CBS News’ Michelle Levi

Washington, DC -- Democratic National Committee Chairman, Howard Dean told reporters over breakfast Wednesday that the DNC and Barack Obama’s campaign are already united on several key campaign issues including campaign finance, transparency and voter research. "When the nominee comes in," Dean explained, "basically they set the policy for the Democratic National Committee. We are going to abide by whatever Senator Obama advises us to do."

The governor stressed his optimism about the impact of an extended primary season. "When we designed the 50 state strategy we did not have in mind 50 state primaries all which mattered," Dean joked, "but we got that and I think its at the end of the day going to be a very good thing" adding the qualifier, "now that we are through." He bragged, "we basically got to do a dry run of every state in the country six months before the election."

One benefit of the Democrats' season of infighting, according to Dean, was the creation of extensive voter files which will be available to every democratic candidate heading into November. "Obama used our voter files exclusively and the way they do that is through the states," Dean explained. "Since we all have the same voter files we have a national voter file map, the states build it, we pay for it on the condition that whoever uses it for the state gives us their data back."

The governor said he was "a little surprised" by the rate of his party's reconciliation "given the length of the primary season” but acknowledged “it will take some longer time" to be completed. Dean referenced his experience after dropping out of the presidential race in 2004 and said, "it is always harder for the supporters than it is for the leaders. But I think we are well on our way to unity. … We really do have to genuinely reach out to the people who were disappointed in the outcome," he said. Dean allowed there is concern that Clinton supporters may be disillusioned and stay home or turn to McCain. "But the leadership is coming around very quickly ... they get what's at stake here," he added.

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This week we reported on how Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama appears poised to turn down public financing in the general election, the first time a major party has taken that step since the system was implemented in 1974.

"We have created a parallel public financing system where the American people decide if they want to support a campaign they can get on the Internet and finance it, and they will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful," Obama said Tuesday night.

Now the Associated Press reports that Obama is sending further signals that he is leaning against opting into the public financing system, which he had previously indicated he would take part in.

Calling the present system "creaky," the Illinois senator suggested it needed to be revamped.

"The amount of money raised through the public financing system may be substantially lower than the amount of money that can be raised over the Internet, which presents candidates then with some pretty tough decisions in terms of how they want to move forward if they want to compete in as many states as possible," Obama said in Indianapolis.

If Obama or Hillary Clinton were to accept public financing, they would receive $84 million to use between their official nomination at the Democratic National Convention in late August and Election Day November 4th.

Obama has thus far raised more than $230 million from over 1 million donors.

Despite the comments, Obama says has not yet made a decision on whether to accept public financing in the general election. Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain is expected to opt into the program.

Today Barack Obama took to the editorial page of USA Today, laying out the conditions under which he would agree to accept public financing in the general election – an idea his campaign once embraced wholeheartedly, only to be seen as wavering in recent days.

While Obama reiterates his earlier promise to "aggressively pursue" a public financing agreement with the Republican nominee – likely John McCain – if he wins the Democratic nomination, Obama also says that such an agreement needs to go beyond accepting public funding: It also needs to include a promise by both candidates to "commit to discouraging cheating by their supporters; to refusing fundraising help to outside groups; and to limited their own parties to legal forms of involvement."

Those conditions weren't part of Obama's original statement on accepting public financing in November 2007, when he said in a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire, "I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." Now, it appears Obama wants that publicly financed general election to be relatively free of outside influences as well.

Campaigning in Ohio, McCain signaled he'd make Obama's financing an issue, particularly if the Illinois senator opts out of the public system. "We either keep our word or we don't keep our word. I intend to keep my word to the American people," he said, according to the Associated Press. "I think the American people would expect him to hold to that commitment, especially if we want to bring about change."

If Obama were to accept public financing as the Democratic nominee, he would have more than $80 million at his disposal to spend over two months – more than enough, even by this race's standards. But McCain would have the same amount, giving Obama no advantage for the final two months of the election. Still, Obama would be able to raise and spend money freely up until the moment he formally accepts the Democratic nomination, likely giving him an edge headed into what would be the campaign's home stretch.