Super Rich Step Into Political Vacuum

Washington Post ^ | 17Oct2004 | Grimaldi / Edsall

[TrojanMan]

...a handful of wealthy liberals ... could determine the outcome (of the election). They have given more than $26 million to help finance... the goal of which is to make John F. Kerry president.

527s for Soft Money

Twenty months before the law took effect, Harold Ickes, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, sent out a 12-page warning to Democrats about its potential effect. "The ban on the use of soft money by national political parties will greatly advantage the Republicans," Ickes wrote March 12, 2001. "Were the Republicans smart, they would vote to a person to enact [McCain-Feingold] word for word, and laugh all the way to the next election."

The math appeared inescapable. Had McCain-Feingold applied in 1999-2000 and soft money - large, unregulated contributions from individuals, corporations and unions - been eliminated, the GOP would have outspent the Democrats by a crushing $448 million to $270 million, Ickes wrote.

McCain-Feingold eventually would limit individual hard money contributions - federally regulated campaign contributions - to $2,000 to a federal candidate and to $25,000 to a party.

Ickes saw only one way out: independent, nonparty, nonprofit 527s and 501c groups that under the law could still receive large soft money donations. Many of the Democratic Party's leading operatives, including Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe, reached the same conclusion. Meeting at the DNC and in congressional offices, they launched a secret effort to continue the flow of soft money to nonparty groups even as their Democratic elected leaders publicly pressed for an end to soft money.

"We would laugh bitterly when we saw Democratic senators on the floor saying, 'Let's get big money out of politics and go back to grass-roots politics,' " said one of the key operatives, anonymously.

[TrojanMan]

How many times have we heard how unfair soft money groups are from the Democratic party? I, for one, find it interesting that their STATED PLAN (see above) is and always has been to publicly disapprove of using soft money while doing exactly that when nobody is looking. What's really scary is what all the "contributors" will be asking for if Kerry wins. One gentleman has already spent millions on attempts to legalize marijuana and is continuing his efforts by donating to Kerry's 507s. Let's show people how hypocritical this party really is.

[vollmond]

You might want to correct that citation. I don't believe Tim Russert was on Meet the Press in 1971.