Posted on 12/04/2002 10:43:26 PM PST by Pliney the younger
In force for less than a month, campaign finance is already dead.
It must be a democratic land speed record. In force for less than a month, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform is already being declared a failure--by the same people who labored for years to pass it.
So while money will still be raised and surely spent, all the reformers have accomplished is to make it harder for the media to track it and keep voters informed about its sources. Like the Prohibitionists, they are merely pushing the money into the shadows.
But we hardly need to wait for the Justices to tell us that McCain-Feingold is folly. The bill's own supporters are already disowning it, and before the ink of President Bush's signature is even dry.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
The Leftist press outlets have been fanatical to create a campaign finance Reform bill. Their goal was to take away the Republicans’ advantage in fund raising.
All that they succeeded in doing was to create a new hidden political finance system, with an untraceable money trail. The leftist press created a monster system which is a dozen times worse, and a dozen times more corrupting than the system it replaced.
When the leftist press learned that President Clinton and the Democrats political campaigns were being subsidized by America’s mortal enemy the Communist Chinese they had no desire to interfere. It was just fine by the leftists.
When hundreds of Union workers complained that monies were being taken out of their paychecks against their will, to support the Democrat party, which they didn’t support. The leftist newsmen not only felt that there was nothing wrong with the system, they felt that since it aided their leftist friends that it was an excellent idea.
But when the American people repeatedly gave more money to the Republicans than to the Democrats, the leftist press demanded that changes be made to help their leftist friends in the Democratic Party (which also serves the secularists as a pseudo-religious sect)
And when groups of Americans expressed their fee speech rights, by raising money and expressing their opinions on topics that the leftists disagreed with, the leftists again decided that Americans freedom of speech must be taken away from them.
To accomplish their goal the leftist press constantly misrepresented the truth. They told the Americans that, unlike Communist Chinese money, money voluntarily given by Americans was a danger to the political process.
To give their proposal the appearance of bipartisanship they got John McCain, the Republican who had betrayed his party by telling his constituents before he was elected that he was a Reagan Republican (over a hundred times) and then voting with the Democrats on every issue. (Mc Cain you might remember was previously discovered to have prostituted his office by using it to support the projects of Keating as he destroyed the life savings of thousands of Americans.
It is interesting how the plans of evil men often end up with consequences, that end up damaging themselves. That is exactly what happened this time.
Better luck next times Buckwheat. Oh I forgot America has had enough of you, and your leftist politicians. And didn’t America just throw them out of control of any branch of the government.
And the next time you decide to try to fool the American people, America’s New Free Press coalition will be there to explain to the nation just how despicable you are.
Well your viewers and subscribers have already deserted you by the millions. There are no reasons millions more shouldn’t leave when they learn that they can’t believe one single thing that you write or say anymore.
Now that is what I call reform!
Always yours,
Pliny the younger
When hundreds of Union workers complained that monies were being taken out of their paychecks against their will, to support the Democrat party, which they didn’t support. The leftist newsmen not only felt that there was nothing wrong with the system, they felt that since it aided their leftist friends that it was an excellent idea.
I have no doubt that what you say about the leftie media whores is true, but was there a specific event that you had in mind when any of them expressed that it was an excellent idea? Just asking.
The writer apparently does not give him credit for sending this mess to the courts. It has been bandied about as a political issue by the dems for 12 years. Enough is enough.
WSJ is still on the learning curve about "mis-underestimating" President Bush.
A perfect metaphor for McLame. His conduct in the Theatre of the Absurd, aka the Senate, would make Camus proud.
WSJ is still on the learning curve about "mis-underestimating" President Bush. Passing the bill so that it can shot down in the courts is a piss poor excuse for dubya signing it. What if it isn't declared unconstitutional? The president has a responsibility to veto unconstitutional legislation. No Excuses!
The left will merely claim that the Supremes who knock it down are Evil Republican Appointed justices, and the fact that they struck it down is proof positive that more "reform" is needed.
Nope. As sick as I am of hearing about campaign finance reform, I'm resigned to hear about it forever.
Bump to your response, with one minor addition. It is far moer likely that SCOTUS would refuse to hear it (they review lesss than 1% of the cases presented to them), making it permanent. Bush was foolish to sign it.
All of this was entirely predictable; in fact it's an eerie repetition of what happened after the post-Watergate campaign reform of 1974. Business and labor PACs proliferated, as did millionaire candidates, who could spend as much of their own money as they wanted. The courts upheld some spending limits but struck down others, creating a maze of new loopholes. A main author of that reform, Fred Wertheimer, is still whispering into John McCain's ear today that if only we can pass one more . . . The poor Senator is now his personal Sancho Panza.
I've already reqad several excellent posts you have made. I didn't realize you were "new" unless you've been lurking.
What makes you think that, their protestations to the contrary, that that's not exactly what they set out to do?
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