Free Republic

ObamaFraud: Still Not News Oct 25, 2008 As readers may recall, a couple of days ago it became clear that the Obama website had intentionally disabled all the basic credit-card-processing security checks and thereby enabled multiple contributions from donors with fake names. The excuse offered in the New York Times story was that, ah, yes, the Obama gang may appear to accept contributions from "Mr Fake Donor" of "23 Fraudulent Lane", but all those phony baloney contributions are picked up by their rigorous offline checking procedures. As many Obama supporters wrote to point out, simply because you get a message...

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign (Nev.), who has spent a major part of the election cycle hectoring fellow GOP Senators to contribute to the outgunned committee, told his colleagues at their weekly luncheon Tuesday that he was contributing $300,000 from his re-election fund to the NRSC. Last month, Ensign bleakly informed his colleagues that he would have to scale back on the NRSC's independent expenditures because they had not ponied up enough money to compete with the Democrats. Through July 31, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had almost $43 million in the bank; the NRSC had $25.4 million...

Since the start of the presidential campaign in the USA, greatest differences between the Republicans and the Democrats could be seen in their views towards war in Iraq. The primaries are over and John McCain and Barack Obama remain as the pivotal rivals, one of which will head the country in the next four years. Republican John McCain is a famous Vietnam War veteran and has been an eager supporter of war in Iraq even before the US Army invaded the country. On the other hand, Democrat Barack Obama opposes war, he has done so from the very start and...

While the media elite goes after Vets for Freedom for making a TV buy for John McCain, they're giving Barack Obama a free ride as he surfs a wave of PAC money to the Democratic nomination, a wave that, if anything, is nearing tsunami proportions despite his boasts that he doesn't accept donations from PACs. The political committees of just one such entity -- which according to Obama's own website, he "begged" for their support -- dwarf the Vets' $1 million ad buy.

A Priceless Opinion The Supreme Court strikes down the Millionaire's Amendment. by Hans A. von Spakovsky IN THE EXCITEMENT over the Supreme Court's decision in the D.C. gun ban case, almost overlooked was a second decision that struck another blow against the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance law. In Davis v. FEC, a 5-4 majority found the "Millionaire's Amendment" to be unconstitutional, holding that it imposed an unprecedented penalty on any candidate who robustly exercises his First Amendment rights by requiring him to choose between the right to engage in unfettered political speech or to be subject to discriminatory fundraising limitations....

Build a Republican campaign for Tom DeLay's old congressional seat and Dick Cheney will come. The vice president is scheduled to visit Houston billionaire Dan Duncan's home in River Oaks on Friday for a private, campaign fundraising event for congressional candidate Pete Olson of Sugar Land and the Texas Republican Party. Olson is running for the 22nd Congressional District seat held by Democrat Nick Lampson of Stafford. Cheney is no stranger to the local political turf. When DeLay was entangled in campaign ethics charges in late 2005, Cheney was the main attraction at a fundraising event in Houston for the...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday that First Amendment rights need to be expanded and cited the elimination of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms as one solution. Gingrich, a Republican, suggested allowing people to give any amount to any candidate as long as the donation is reported online within 24 hours. "Just as tax lawyers always succeed in out-thinking the (Internal Revenue Service) because they stay after five and the IRS goes home, the private-sector lawyers will always out-think the (Federal Election Commission) because they stay after five and the FEC goes home," Gingrich told about 400 people at the...

July 28, 2006 Al Franken Getting Celebrity Support By FREDERIC J. FROMMER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The list of contributors to comedian Al Franken's political action committee reads like a celebrity who's who: singer Barbra Streisand, writer-director Nora Ephron, actor-writer Larry David and actor Jimmy Smits. Franken, who hosts a radio show on the liberal Air America Radio network, is considering challenging Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., in 2008. Franken moved his show from New York City to Minneapolis earlier this year, fueling speculation of a possible bid. His leadership PAC, Midwest Values PAC, raised $500,000, according to a review...

Republican Bob Corker reported giving another $420,000 in personal money to his U.S. Senate campaign on Thursday, while Van Hilleary belatedly filed a personal disclosure revealing $336,000 in income from a Washington law and lobbying firm. Corker's latest contribution to his own campaign brings his total self-funding to almost $2.2 million. As of July 14, Corker had also reported raising $6.5 million from others. The total of $8.7 million puts Corker on track toward setting a record for spending on a U.S. Senate campaign in Tennessee. That will almost certainly be the case if he wins the Aug. 3 primary....

Capping a period of staff turnover and news reports about its connection with a lobbyist who pleaded guilty to bribery charges, the conservative Free Enterprise Fund has lost its public relations firm. The Herald Group, a year-old firm doing PR work on the fund's legal challenge to the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law, has resigned. Matt Well, a partner with the Herald Group, said his firm "released them as a client." "They're going through some transitions at the Free Enterprise Fund, and we made a decision that we had a limited amount of resources and wanted to put those resources to...

John McCain (R-AZ) raised $213,282 last quarter, spending $384,258. His total cash-on-hand dropped by 15% to only $1,112,476. Compare to some other senators who have been considering running for national office. Joe Biden, from tiny Delaware, raised $3,044,942, while spending $911,196. Evan Bayh (D-IN) raised $4,598,553, while spending $830,152. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) raised $3,310,886, while spending $713,198. John Kerry (D-MA) raised $7,442,952, spending a staggering $10,221,956. Some potential candidates are running for re-election this year, but are quite transparently working to build a national campaign treasure. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has raised a mind-blowing $33,180,959, spending $16,725,827 against token opposition. But...

WASHINGTON - Signaling a new phase in the struggle for control of Congress, House Democrats have reserved time for more than $30 million worth of campaign advertising this fall in roughly two dozen congressional districts, with a heavy emphasis on the Northeast and Midwest. The Democratic targets include clusters of Republican-held seats in the Philadelphia area held by Reps. Jim Gerlach, Curt Weldon and Michael Fitzpatrick, as well as the Ohio River Valley, where Reps. John Hostettler of Indiana, Geoff Davis of Kentucky and Steve Chabot of Ohio can expect a protracted televised barrage. Based on information available to date,...

Hooray for the Supreme Court. Yes, believe it or not, they actually do deserve some praise. Specifically the members of the majority who recently held that Vermont’s restrictive campaign finance laws violated the First Amendment’s free speech provisions. This development comes at an opportune time in our political history. Currently, our free speech rights are besieged by politicians using the boogeyman of political corruption to build support for laws which themselves corrupt our political system by limiting our ability to participate in it. The most egregious national example is the 2001 Bi-partisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, (AKA McCain-Feingold), which placed...

January 29, 2006 -- BILL Clinton has made corporate reform one of his top causes since leaving the White House. He calls for more "socially responsible" investing, better protection of workers and greater diversity in corporate management. At the same time, he condemns cronyism, excessive pay for top management and an alleged emphasis on short-term profits at the expense of workers. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee — has bashed corporations for their failure to live up to their pension obligations. Yet, as the senior adviser to two investment funds...

Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus are teaming up with conservative Republicans to push for the first major changes in the 2002 campaign-finance reform bill, most admitting that they made a mistake in voting for the bill three years ago. "If I had the chance to vote again, I wouldn't vote the way I voted," said Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, New York Democrat, who along with most of the CBC supported the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act after they were promised by Democratic leaders that the bill would not harm their constituents or funding bases in order to garner their...

I'm going to tell you a story that I've never told any reporter," stated Sean Treglia, a former program officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, during a March 2004 conference at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. "Now that I'm several months away from Pew and we have campaign finance reform, I can tell this story." Speaking to an audience of the initiated, Treglia described how the crusade for campaign finance reform was “an immense scam perpetrated on the American people by a cadre of left-wing foundations and disguised as a ‘mass movement,’” wrote New...

[O]ne big loser was... McCain-Feingold campaign finance "reform".... Preliminary reports say a record $3.9 billion was spent on this year's Presidential and Congressional campaigns, 30% more than four years ago. Instead of severing the supposedly corrupting links between big money and politics, the reform's main effect has been merely to channel the cash through different political hands, and with less accountability. ...McCain-Feingold has succeeded in the narrow goal of staunching the flow of contributions from corporations, Big Labor and wealthy individuals to the two major political parties. Labor unions have turned more of their attention to voter registration and turnout....

<p>Senator John McCain's Reform Institute has suffered some bad press recently due to its involvement in an influence-peddling scandal with Cablevision. As usual, however, mainstream media have failed to go to the root of the matter.</p> <p>Founded on June 26, 2001, McCain's Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues has long served as a nerve center for the so-called "campaign finance reform"movement - a movement which has done nothing to clean up campaign finance, but has done a great deal to empower federal judges and government bureaucrats to regulate political speech, in defiance of the Bill of Rights.</p>

Ex-aide's trial puts Hil at high risk GOP salivates over campaign finance case By KENNETH R. BAZINET DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton isn't on trial in Los Angeles on Tuesday - but as far as her political adversaries are concerned, she may as well be. Her ex-finance director David Rosen has been charged with concealing the real cost of a star-studded Hollywood fund-raiser for Clinton in August 2000 - and if he's convicted, her enemies plan to exploit it to the maximum. "If it was any other senator, it might not be an issue, but with her...

The (New Jersey) medical school and its affiliated hospitals donated at least $155,000 to state politicians over the last decade - a highly unusual practice among universities in New Jersey and beyond. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which gets $200 million, or about 13 percent of its budget, from the state, gave to candidates and campaign committees from both parties. The contributions ran the gamut from $1,600 to Democrat Richard J. Codey before he became acting governor, to $24,750 to a campaign committee controlled by former Senate President and then-acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco, a Republican....

Senator John McCain's Reform Institute has suffered some bad press recently due to its involvement in an influence-peddling scandal with Cablevision. As usual, however, mainstream media have failed to go to the root of the matter. Founded on June 26, 2001, McCain's Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues has long served as a nerve center for the so-called "campaign finance reform" movement – a movement which has done nothing to clean up campaign finance, but has done a great deal to empower federal judges and government bureaucrats to regulate political speech, in defiance of the Bill of Rights. Now...

Kerry Has Money Left From Presidential Run 1 hour, 25 minutes ago U.S. National - AP By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - John Kerry (news - web sites)'s unsuccessful presidential campaign left him with millions of dollars in seed money for a 2008 Senate or presidential bid. The Democrat transferred $4 million in leftover money from his 2004 presidential-primary campaign to his Senate campaign fund, campaign finance reports he filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) show. Kerry's primary campaign had nearly $10 million left after the transfer. Kerry can use that money and...

WASHINGTON — In one of his last television commercials before the election, President Bush waxed eloquent and emotional on the sacrifices of the U.S. military and his zeal to defend the country. In another, wolves lurked in a forest — symbolizing terrorists on the loose — as a narrator denounced Sen. John F. Kerry for proposing to cut funding for spy agencies. New data released Monday on airtime purchased for campaign advertisements show which spot Bush favored for his closing pitch. The president spent about $53,000 one day late last week to air the uplifting pro-Bush ad called "Whatever it...

Thanks a whole bunch McCain and Feingold! For months, we have heard liberal, left wing loonies rant about how poorly the war in Iraq and plan for peace that followed was going. Regardless of facts, this mantra by liberals and media elite was pushed on the public daily. I am sure you heard it, “They just didn’t plan for the peace.” Ridiculously, they expect American citizens to believe their spin. Not taking into account that most understand that war is not perfectly fought nor won and sadly, peace often comes with great sacrifice. With that said, are you not curious,...

CANNON URGES ILLEGALS TO DONATE ILLEGALLY Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) was interviewed by Jose' Elibardo Rivera on Spanish-language radio station KBJA (1640 AM) on Saturday morning, May 22nd. Also on the air with the congressman was Cannon aide Marco Diaz. An English translation of the transcript from the show reveals the Cannonites explaining how they think illegal aliens could legally contribute to Cannon's congressional re-election campaign and get around the FEC laws. "You, you, you... are illegal, as, as I was a long time ago," says host Rivera to his audience during the interview. "Let's say you are illegal. Does...

Major liberal donors are demonstrating their willingness to fund a new shadow Democratic Party, according to reports filed Friday by a network of nominally independent organizations committed to defeating President Bush in November. At the same time, momentum to bar their activities gained new strength. On Thursday, the legal staff of the Federal Election Commission proposed regulations that could choke off the groups' plans, with backing from an alliance of Republican Party leaders and campaign-watchdog groups. The reports filed Friday with the Internal Revenue Service and the FEC showed millions of dollars flowing from unions, wealthy individuals, environmental groups and...

“I wonder if I shall fall right through the Earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward!” — Alice, from Alice in Wonderland Thanks to three recent, startling court decisions, free speech supporters must think they’ve fallen through the center of the Earth, too, where down is up and up is down. The first ruling was from a Circuit Court in Louisville. Judge Stephen P. Ryan issued a last-minute order blocking a new ordinance limiting the hours adult businesses can be open. Apparently, when it comes to free speech, there can...

Some state officials in Ohio seem to have strange ideas concerning political campaign finance reform. Apparently, they're content to harass low-budget political amateurs. At least they could get it right. As 2003 was ending, Jeff McNeely, a telephone company technician in Cleveland, finally was being granted some peace by the Ohio Elections Commission and the state Attorney General's Office. In 1996, McNeely campaigned as a Democrat for the Ohio House. He lost, in more ways than one. It seems that McNeely, who spent a total of $150 on his race, forgot to list a $32 expenditure on his official campaign...

WASHINGTON (AP) - California Rep. Jane Harman's 1994 campaign for Congress benefited from $21,000 illegally funneled from a Hughes Aircraft Co. fund-raising event, newly released documents show. The records were made public by the Federal Election Commission this week after being discovered during a review of closed enforcement cases, a commission spokesman said. Harman, now the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was never punished because a federal judge said her campaign didn't commit deliberate or serious violations. At issue was an Oct. 29, 1993, fund-raiser Hughes held for Harman at its El Segundo, Calif., headquarters. Corporations are prohibited...

New FEC Chairman Vows to Enforce Law Thu Dec 18, 5:13 PM ET Add U.S. Government - AP to My Yahoo! By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Democrats who have been forming special groups to avoid spending restrictions in the campaign finance law may soon face some bad news: The government's new chief election regulator is warning their activities could be reined in. Multimedia • Run for the White House 2004 (AP Flash) Bradley Smith, the Republican chosen Thursday as chairman of the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites), said he believes a recent Supreme Court ruling...

Freeper Investigation Exposes Direct Coordination Between MoveOn.org and the DNC (Foreign $$$ funneled to DNC Petition Drive)We have discovered a direct link between the Democrat National Committee (DNC) and MoveOn.org, the organization of choice for donations and activism of the Democrats. Recently there was a Joint Petition Drive to protect America's Courts by DNC and MoveOn.org. This directly links MoveOn.org to the DNC. Drudge revealed this week (below) that foreign money is flowing into MoveOn.org. With the direct link between DNC and MoveOn.org established, MoveOn.org money from foreign sources is funneled to DNC. Nov 13, 2003 More than 300,000...

US attorney general fined for breaking law By Marcus Warren in New York (Filed: 18/12/2003) John Ashcroft, the US attorney general, has been fined £21,000 for breaking election laws during his defeat by a dead rival for a seat in the Senate. During his unsuccessful campaign in 2000, America's top lawman illegally accepted £62,700 from a body set up to support a run for the presidency, the Federal Election Commission found. John Ashcroft A controversial, deeply religious figure, Mr Ashcroft was standing for re-election as a senator from Missouri. Humiliatingly, he was beaten by an opponent who died in a...

<p>Leading campaign-finance watchdog organizations as well as Republican activists intend to challenge the new network of independent groups gearing up to spend as much as $300 million on voter mobilization and pro-Democrat TV ads.</p> <p>The organizations -- the Center for Responsive Politics, the Campaign Legal Center, and Democracy 21 -- contend that the pro-Democrat groups are violating prohibitions on the use of corporate and labor money for partisan voter registration and mobilization drives.</p>

The games those Dems play Posted: December 12, 20031:00 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...

<p>Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, who has raised three times as much money as the Democrats' Howard Dean for the 2004 election, can probably increase his fund-raising lead thanks to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>

Brady Campaign to Pay Fine for Voter Mailings 12/8/2003 The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has agreed to pay a $26,000 fine for failing to report money spent on voter mailings before the 2000 election, the Associated Press reported Dec. 4. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) fined the gun-violence prevention group after its Voter Education Fund failed to report in a timely fashion $111,777 spent on mailings to oppose Kentucky Rep. Ernest Fletcher's election and $99,731 spent against Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey. The FEC requires such information to be reported within 24 hours.

Jewish money: Bush raising Jewish funds from Republicans and Democrats By Matthew E. Berger When Fred Zeidman raised money in the Jewish community for George W. Bush's presidential run in 2000, several Jewish supporters asked to give their donations in cash, afraid of having a public record of their transaction. But this time around, Zeidman is not encountering timid Jews. He said many Jewish donors are eager to leap onto the Bush-Cheney bandwagon. "The difference is night and day," said Zeidman, whom Bush appointed as chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in 2002. "You can't believe how easy it...

I read the list of Hollywood/entertainment figures who contributed to Prez Bush's re-election. (LA TIMES 11/16/03) $2000: 1. Chuck Norris: One of my favorite actors...I don't think he will get an Oscar any time soon...But, so what? I remember an episode of WALKER TEXAS RANGER...Walker(Norris) tells others that he is going to a meeting with Gov. Bush. 2. Dino De Laurentiis: Produced many films...Like RED DRAGON, HANNIBAL, U-571, and CONAN THE BARBARIAN. 3. Terry Semel: Yahoo CEO 4. Richard Zanuck: Produced many films...Like ROAD TO PERDITION, RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, and DRIVING MISS DAISY. 5. Lili Zanuck: A producer-director...She directed RUSH,...

<p>It's time to scrap America's 30-year-old experiment with public financing of presidential campaigns.</p> <p>Only about one out of every nine Americans checks the box on his tax return to earmark $3 for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which matches private campaign donations of up to $250 to qualified candidates. This notwithstanding that tax returns make clear contributing won't increase your tax liability. Now that both Howard Dean and John Kerry have opted out of this public financing system for their primary campaigns, you'd think good-government liberals would re-evaluate how badly the system is working. Instead they are coming up with even more harebrained schemes to try to save it. Some propose raising the amount earmarked out of each tax return to $10 or even $20, though the idea that this would increase public participation strains belief.</p>

<p>PITTSBURGH -- Democratic candidates battling for the 2004 presidential nomination will get millions of taxpayer dollars early next month, but President Bush is widening the cash gap between him and his challengers daily.</p> <p>On Jan. 2, 17 days before the crucial Iowa caucuses that will be the first test for the Democrats, the federal government will dole out more than $10 million to the hopefuls.</p>

<p>November 25, 2003 -- THE Democratic Party is being replaced by a new group called "Americans Coming Together," which has been launched with two $10 million donations from financier George Soros and Peter B. Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corporation. The new organization wants to raise $94 million to finance a massive campaign against Bush - all with soft money. The Democratic Party, which is only allowed to raise hard money (donations limited to $2,000 per person) by the McCain-Feingold law is unable to amass the resources necessary for a national campaign, so it is ceding the main role to Americans Coming Together.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - The IRS is auditing the nation's largest teachers union, scrutinizing an organization that works energetically to elect candidates but files tax returns reporting zero political expenditures from member dues. The National Education Association promised Monday to cooperate, but its president, Reg Weaver, said the union "will not be silenced" by the audit or the conservative law firm that requested it. NEA spokeswoman Kathleen Lyons said the audit began last week. "It will be a complete, thorough audit," she said. "The IRS has not singled out any particular aspect of our activities." Weaver and Lyons predicted the...

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating accusations that the National Education Association spent millions of dollars in members' dues on unreported political activities.     NEA President Ray Weaver confirmed the IRS probe — sparked by accusations from a Virginia-based watchdog group — Sunday during an interview in a Fox News Channel special called "Breaking Point: Education in America."     "In September, the IRS indicated that they were coming in," Mr. Weaver said. "When they come in, we feel confident that they will go out the same way they did in 1999, and that is having the NEA have a clean bill of...

IRS Audits Nation's Top Teachers' Union By LARRY MARGASAK The Associated Press Monday, November 24, 2003; 9:20 PM WASHINGTON - The IRS has begun auditing the National Education Association, which has allocated millions of dollars to elect pro-education candidates while reporting on tax forms that it does not spend union dues on politics. While promising cooperation, the president of the nation's largest teachers' union is also pledging to "vigorously defend our constitutional right to speak to our members about the role of politics in public education." NEA spokeswoman Kathleen Lyons said Monday the audit began last week. "It will be...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The IRS has begun auditing the National Education Association, which has allocated millions of dollars to elect pro-education candidates while reporting on tax forms that it does not spend union dues on politics.</p> <p>While promising cooperation, the president of the nation's largest teachers' union is also pledging to "vigorously defend our constitutional right to speak to our members about the role of politics in public education."</p>