The 527 Charade

Wall Street Journal ^ | August 31, 2004 | Editorial

[OESY]

...Let's recall how this alleged "527" Swift Boat advertising scandal came to pass. The politicians started it themselves by passing the McCain-Feingold.... While it banned big-money contributions to the political parties, the bill didn't ban such donations to independent groups organized under section 527 of the tax code.

Mr. Bush's decision to sign the bill was especially disappointing because he had declared in 2000 that he would only sign something that contained several key principles.... This bow to the First Amendment was one reason some people supported Mr. Bush over John McCain. Yet in the end, Mr. Bush signed McCain-Feingold....

...Democrats as George Soros began pouring tens of millions of dollars into such anti-Bush 527s as America Coming Together... the press corps yawned. If Mr. McCain was outraged we didn't notice, and Mr. Kerry was mute.

Enter the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a 527 that began its ad campaign with much less than $1 million. Suddenly all hell breaks loose. Mr. Kerry quickly demanded that Mr. Bush denounce the Swift Boat ads that by the strictures of McCain-Feingold the President can't have anything to do with. Mr. McCain demanded the same thing.

Meanwhile, the press corps began digging through the rushes to find any link between the Bush campaign and the Swift ads. This is the same press corps that had all but ignored the fact that Harold Ickes -- a man at the center of the 1996 campaign finance scandal -- is running a major Democratic 527. It also didn't seem to care that Joe Sandler serves as general counsel of both the Democratic National Committee and Moveon.org, the anti-Bush outfit....

All in all, what we have here is a first-class political charade. Everyone pretends to be outraged by advertising that they all know is legal....

[alloysteel]

You never miss the water until the well runs dry....

There was a great deal of freedom in the campaign finance laws before McCain-Feingold was made the law of the land, but the problem was, it tended to favor the incumbents. Or so went the argument for the passage of McCain-Feingold. The effect of that was to multiply the force that non-party organizations could apply during a political campaign. No clause protecting civility was written into the law, anywhere. And very little concerning accountability.

[Just mythoughts]

McCain has a double mind. He gives a speech last night to the world that presents every politician is due respect, JFKerry is his friend, but President Bush has "earn" another four year la la da la la do.


Then McCain goes on the Greta "lawyers" are gods show, wife of a JFKerry campaign worker, and getting a set up question about 527's McCain blasts the FEC and their two "EVIL" leaders, by name no less.

McCain should practice what he preaches about paying respect to all "humanity" not just for the likes of himself and JFKerry which IMO are of the same double speak mind.

[Brett66]

I think I'm changing my mind on 527's if it gives rise to guys like the Swift Boat Veterans.
They've ran some of the most effective ads I've ever seen, we would have never seen such an effective ad if only RNC approved ads could run.

[starfish923]

It's interesting that for the 527 groups the Democrats have outspent the Republicans by a 10 to 1 margin.

Also, the flap over the 527's only seemed to surface when the ads were antiKerry. No one seemed to care when they were antiBush.

Perhaps I misjudge.

[Let's Roll]

I don't have a problem with these independent groups at all as long as there are contribution limits so that a Soros for example can't influence an election out of all proportion to his right to do so and total transparency as far as donor ID. Then they could no longer be called "shadowy" groups.

[scuret]

McCain is a traitor to the Republican party. He was on NPR last night interviewing with Robert Siegel. The answers McCain gave were just as ridiculous as the questions 'ol Siegel asked. McCain sounded as though he was campaigning for Kerry. Siegel asked McCain if he thought Iraq was the third most divisive war in American history and McCain agreed that it was. Then McCain went on to agree with Siegel on the countless mistakes that they both agreed the President had made in going to war. McCain belongs on the other side of the aisle. He's useless.

[tahiti]

McCain is obviously an elitist, egotist.

Because if he is not, then he is an idiot.

Any human being who is over 50 years old should have enough life experience to know about the "law of unintended consequences."

But if your rational thinking is distorted by the need to have your name attached to a piece of federal legislation, in spite of it's obvious flaws, then you are an elitist, egotist.

This is from a man that supposedly served his country and defended it's freedom and liberty.

[JTHomes]

It is naive for those who think the rise of 527 corps was an unintended consequence. I believe this whole campaign finance reform charade was meant to allow groups to say things that the 2 parties wanted to say but felt they couldn't get away with. So they don't "coordinate", but with a wink and a nod, they pretty much know on both sides there will be people who will step up and run ads to attack the other side. This will not end political favors and influence of the biggest donors.

The core problem is not too much money in campaigns. That is just freedom of speech. The problem is a government that has grown to big and too powerful. This power is derived from the regulatory, judicial and tax power. Regulatory and judical powers are necessary powers (although still abused) for government to exercise so that there are rules to the game and society can function. But the root of much of this power is the income tax, which if repealed would dramatically lessen the influence of government, and thus the need of people to spend so much money on campaigns to get their guy in office.

So,
1. Repeal the income tax
2. Reign in regulatory and judicial power to comply with the Constitution.

Then watch the money spent on politics dry up. With less power to wield, those seeking to influence it will find better ways to spend their money.

[tahiti]

Well said and we agree.