Free Republic

The so-called Wounded Warriors Act, legislation intended to improve health care for veterans, has attracted nearly unanimous, bipartisan support in Congress. So why would the newly formed Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America begin running a television commercial urging the citizens of South Carolina to tell Congress to pass it? The answer lies in the commercial’s glowing images of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican banking on a South Carolina victory to jump-start his cash-poor Republican primary campaign. The group that paid for the advertisement operates independently of Mr. McCain’s campaign, but was set up and financed by his...

WASHINGTON, March 30 — To many Republicans, the liberal activist organization MoveOn.org is a political boogeyman that they hope to chase off with new restrictions on so-called 527 groups. But the pursuit may turn out to be fruitless. Like other major groups planning to inject themselves aggressively into the midterm elections through advertisements, voter drives and issue fights, MoveOn.org has already figured out what it thinks is a better, and less controversial, way to spend its millions. Its 527 — named for a section of the tax code — is being put on ice. "Our 527 is dormant," said Eli...

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has rejected requests by the Bush-Cheney campaign and by two advocates of campaign finance legislation to order the Federal Election Commission to impose tough regulations on "527" political committees that put more than $400 million into the 2004 elections. Instead, in a ruling issued late Wednesday evening, the judge gave the FEC a choice: Either explain in detail why regulations are not needed or begin proceedings to develop such rules. In the 2003-04 election cycle, 527 committees active in federal elections raised $424 million, according to the Campaign Finance Institute. Pro-Democratic groups spent $314.4...

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean has been -- and I quote -- "paying `bloggers' or professional Internet surfers to keep the enthusiasm up on his website," according to The Hill, a newspaper which reports on the U.S. Congress. The shocking revelation appeared in an October 8 article titled, "Dem Presidential Rivals Suffer `Growth Pains' Chasing Dean." James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's online Best of the Web page comments: We're all for free enterprise, but this does point up an advantage of "old media" over bloggers. Professional journalists may have their biases, but those of us who work for...