Posted on 12/12/2003 2:34:58 AM PST by JohnHuang2
The games those Dems play
Posted: December 12, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
We heard all about it from John McCain. The legislation bears his name. We heard about it from Russ Feingold – ditto. We heard speech after speech about how the evil politicians were "buying" elections, and bribing the electoral process in favor of the biggest spender. Tom Daschle talked about it. Dick Durbin talked about it. Hillary Clinton talked about it. And in light of all that was said, the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform law was passed.
Democrats loved it. They saw the new legislation as the way to finally get major big-time contributors to stop funding Republican campaigns. They had had it with the pro-life groups, and family-values coalitions being able to run ads and help campaign for candidates.
Few Republicans supported it. They supported the idea of having an even playing field, but McCain-Feingold didn't offer that. It offered a steep benefit to labor unions, while it hampered private business. In the end, it was passed and became the law of the land.
Since that time, it seems Republicans have stayed true to both the letter and the spirit of the McCain-Feingold Act. That's right – the ones who worked to try to defeat the legislation have since abided by its rule. Even in light of the Supreme Court's ruling that has since affirmed McCain-Feingold, Republicans have pledged to continue to obey both the spirit and the letter of the law.
For Democrats, the party that fought hard for the passage of the act, they have done all they can to get around the spirit of what the law says and are even now coordinating efforts to outspend the Republicans in 2004 by an avalanche of soft money. Money that should in fact be illegal under the new campaign finance reform legislation.
With McCain-Feingold in place, the parties themselves are only allowed to raise hard-money (money for specific candidates), and in doing that it must be done in increments of $2,000 per person and reported immediately. Soft money would have allowed endless amounts of cash to be funneled to the parties, not necessarily specific candidate campaigns.
Even though the old soft money had no limits, there were rules of accountability attached to it. Critics of McCain-Feingold argued that those soft money dollars were the ultimate example of free speech, thus why many had predicted the Supreme Court would not uphold it.
Now seeing that that is not the case, Republicans have a real dilemma. Do they abide by the rule of law in both letter and spirit, or do the gloves come off and follow the Democrats lead in the art of "new soft money"?
The dilemma is a very real one given the fact that "Independent Political Groups" are now being established by Democratic operatives whose goal is nothing more than to usurp current campaign finance restrictions. For example, according to University of Miami public policy analyst Paul Crespo, George Soros (currency trader), Peter Lewis (insurance tycoon) and Steve Kirsch (Internet mogul) have each either donated or pledged to donate $10,000,000 to one such group. Crespo believes these donations to be the largest single gifts to presidential campaign efforts in the history of America.
What few people do know, however, is that Soros spent close to $15,000,000 dollars to help get McCain-Feingold passed.
His goal?
"To dramatically reduce the role of big special-interest money in American politics."
Even though he apparently has few issues with now breaking the law he helped pass, Soros now sees himself as someone who must bypass the system for the "good of defeating Bush in 2004." In other words, the "free speech" of this one ultra-wealthy extremist is now allowed, compared to the average donor to the pro-life cause who sends $30 a month to the Pro-Life Action League. This isn't "free speech," this is "favored speech," and the Democrats have little gumption to do anything about it.
And now – counting on Republicans to follow the rule of law that they fought hard against but have followed since its passage – Democrats intend to raise cash hand over fist in methods they agreed they would not. Proving once again that Democratic leadership will play games with truth – as long as they are the ones who benefit in the end.
I mentioned the other day that the Democrats are all about the letter, not the spirit, of the law.
We all know where that got the American Indians.
I have a rule about not degenerating others but... what a self-loathing hypocrite.
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