[thoughtomator]

You would have thought the GOP, or the President at the very least, should have been aware that the Supreme Court no longer considers the Constitution in its rulings.

[NittanyLion]

You would have thought the GOP, or the President at the very least, should have been aware that the Supreme Court no longer considers the Constitution in its rulings.

It seemed obvious to me. At the time I stated that SCOTUS taking the correct action was a 50-50 proposition at best. But the "GOP can do no wrong" crowd here called me an idiot, fool, liberal, etc.

[Wallace T.]

The "soft money" issue only became a matter for concern when special interest groups, usually conservative ones like the Christian Coalition or the NRA, used funds from contributors to topple liberal incumbents. This was particularly true in the 1994 election cycle, when numerous Congressmen who supported the assault weapons ban were defeated. The "soft money" loophole was designed in the post-Watergate "reform" period, when special interest groups were mostly on the left, e.g., civil rights groups, labor unions, feminist organizations. In other words, when it was Ralph Abernathy, Lane Kirkland, or Gloria Steinem wielding the soft money, there was no problem, but when it was Pat Robertson or Wayne LaPierre that used soft money, there developed a problem, at least to the liberal establishment.

The special interest groups were a problem not only to the liberals, but to the old guard of the Republican Party, that is, the so-called country club Republicans. There were considerable cultural clashes between these country clubbers and the middle and lower classes that paid dues to the NRA or attended the evangelical churches where Christian Right sentiment was strong. A good example of the country club type is Senator John McCain (the McCain of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill), something of a military aristocrat by background, as a third generation senior officer. His wife, the heiress to a beer distributorship in Arizona, certainly comes from a wealthy (and some would say, Mafia connected) background. By sponsoring this bill, McCain and others of his ilk have succeeded in weakening one of the principal tools of leverage that conservatives have in the GOP.

As for Bush and his advisors, who knows? They need both the country clubbers and the pro-gun and pro-morality crowd to successfully get re-elected. It looks like they punted and hoped for the best.