U.S. Seeks GOP Campaign Papers

AP via NYTimes.com ^ | 8/30/02

[GeneD]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government on Friday sought a court order to force two Republican committees to turn over documents in a lawsuit stemming from the new campaign finance law. The GOP committees in turn charged that Democrats were getting favorable treatment from officials.

The Federal Election Commission, Justice Department and lawmakers decided to take the National Republican Congresssional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee to court while continuing talks with their Democratic counterparts.

Republicans said they felt they were being treated differently from the Democrats and were prepared to fight it out in U.S. District Court in Washington. Both GOP committees said they were only asking for the same treatment the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its Senate counterpart were getting.

``They cut their own deal,'' Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the NRCC chairman, said of the Democratic House committee. ``All we said is we'll take whatever the DCCC got and they won't tell us what the DCCC got or give us the same thing. ... So we'll go to court and argue it.''

Davis said the two Republican committees are concerned the push for GOP fund-raising documents is simply a fishing expedition for material to use against them. He said he did not trust a protective order the federal court has issued to bar attorneys in the cases from releasing any of the documents.

``We are not parties to the lawsuit,'' Davis said. ``So the government doesn't have a right to come in and make our records public in court just because they feel they want to do it.''

Randy Moss, an attorney representing the law's sponsors, including Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., said the government and lawmakers are negotiating with each party committee separately. Those defending the law are seeking the same kind of information from the GOP and Democrats, he said.

In the GOP committees' cases, ``we realized as time was running short that there was no common ground,'' Moss said.

The new law, scheduled to take effect after the November election, prohibits the national party committees from accepting large corporate and union donations known as soft money, and restricts election-time political advertising.

Several groups are suing to try to overturn the law, arguing it is unconstitutional. The Republican National Committee and the California Democratic Party are among the party committees who have filed lawsuits against it.

[dts32041]

I should have known Marty "You can't trust what I say" Meehan was behind this.

The only character missing from this little play is Judge Lambreth.

[88keys]

But when he shows up, watch out! (voice of truth and reason, heHE!)