The Oklahoman did not back Kerry -- in fact, this is today's editorial:
Ouch! Kerry, others bitten by campaign law
Oklahoman Editorial
Let's review the current political landscape, wrought by the campaign-finance reform law passed two years ago by good-government types (read: incumbents) who said money had a corrupting effect on politics.
The major political parties are poorer, banned from collecting unregulated or "soft" money under the McCain-Feingold law, which bears the names of its Senate sponsors. But the cash didn't just go away. It found new outlets. Boy, did it ever!
The effect of millions of dollars in soft money now is being felt in the advertising efforts -- mostly negative, mostly stinging -- of so-called "527" independent groups that are free to collect and spend unregulated contributions.
Most have ambiguous names that offer few clues about their underwriters. A group of Vietnam veterans opposed to Sen. John Kerry used a 527 group backed financially by admitted supporters of President Bush to lambaste Kerry's war record.
Payback? Liberal 527s have spent millions attacking Bush, including the hammering the president received from Democratic-favoring 527s at the height of the primary season.
Kerry, a big supporter of McCain-Feingold, is upset. He's talked so much about the group attacking his Vietnam record and their ads in recent days that he's in danger of being seriously off message, to use campaign-speak.
This is the system Kerry and others created. Now the fruit is bitter. The irony is that Democrats, who led the charge for McCain-Feingold, have become adept at dancing around it. Complaints from Kerry and his supporters about the work of Republican 527s just don't have much traction following the hatchet work done on Bush by similar Democratic groups during the primaries last winter.
Certainly, complaining about it now isn't doing Kerry any good. The 527 groups are legal under the law he enthusiastically supported. The best thing Kerry can do is found in the name of the liberal 527 group bankrolled by the mega-rich George Soros: Moveon.org.
nice to know that one paper isn't on the democrat plantation.
they are correct that the mccain-feingold bill produced 527's.
after 8 months of hate ads against dubya, funded by george soros and john sperling (billionaire from the university of phoenix), the democrats are screaming ouch!