The Weblog at The View from the Core - Sat. 12/13/03 07:05:04 AM
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"Campaign Finance Reform and Connect the Dots" My essay at The Blog from the Core, Monday, February 18, 2002. I don't know if you'll care for the style, but I think my analysis holds up pretty well. + + + + + Its that time of the year. If I told you I woke up with a headache this morning, and Im so dizzy today that I can hardly stand without falling, youd probably commiserate and say, Got that nasty flu bug? Nope. Im just following the news about Campaign Finance Reform (CFR) and trying to figure out whats really going on. Some members of Congress, and of the mainstream media, have somehow seized on the Enron business debacle as a springboard from which to launch another attempt at CFR. The previous attempt, March 2001, was known as McCain-Feingold, after the senators (John McCain, R-Arizona, and Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin) who sponsored the legislation in the Senate. This time around, we have a couple of other names tacked onto legislation in the House: Shays-Meehan, after the representatives who sponsored the bill (Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, and Martin Meehan, D-Massachusetts). As far as I know, any CFR legislation sent to the president would have to be a compromise between McCain-Feingold and Shays-Meehan. Would that be McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan? Gotta get in those precious names, dont they, for the history books and the interviews during the next campaign? Anyway, Enron and its employees had thrown their campaign contributions around broadcast, to both Republicans and Democrats. Then, Enron went bust, and many people were cast adrift who had thought their futures were planted securely. Now, some conservatives are in a tizzy because Enrons political largesse has become the pretext for the latest attempt at CFR. Enrons political contributions, they say, bought no favors from the White House: the Bush administration did nothing to stave off the corporations bankruptcy. (As I understand it, Enrons execs tried to get the White House to influence Enrons creditors to cut them some slack. No go. Some Democrats then took the tack, for a very short while, that the White House should have intervened, for the sake of the little guy: but that would merely have allowed Enrons scam to live a little longer, no?) They are right about Enron, specifically. It does seem, however, that campaign contributions did help, indirectly, to fuel Enrons eventual collapse. For Enrons execs would not have been able to keep their scheme going for as long as they did except for the deeds or misdeeds, or non-deeds of their auditors, Arthur Andersen. As Dick Morris pointed out in a New York Post article, Jan. 29, Arthur Andersens behavior had been encouraged through legislation championed years ago by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut):
Big names in the accounting industry have been especially generous to Dodds campaigns, you see, both before and since the legislation. (Dodd has, of course, disputed Morris account of the events. But Morris is sticking by it, in an article in the Jewish World Review, Feb. 13, providing more details and sources.) So, I think they are wrong who say that campaign contributions had nothing to do with Enrons collapse. But they are wrong, too, who say that Shays-Meehan will help to prevent a recurrence. Why? Because the contributions that (according to Morris story) resulted in legal breaks for the accounting industry were hard-money contributions: Shays-Meehan puts restrictions on soft-money contributions in federal elections, but actually increases the limits on hard-money contributions. So, those who support this CFR on the basis of wiping out alleged Enron-like political corruption are playing some kind of weird double bait-and-switch: neither contributions from Enron, nor soft-money contributions, were part of the problem supposedly being fixed. (Hard money? Soft money? No, were not talking about the difference between coins and bills. Hard money is that contributed directly to a candidate. Soft money is contributed more generally to a party or is spent by organizations, including corporations and labor unions and other special-interest groups, on election-related issues.) Another aspect of this hard-money, soft-money tango is referred to quite obliquely in an article in the Washington Post, Feb. 14:
As reported on the Quinn in the Morning radio program that same day, the last-minute change allows soft-money contributions to be used to pay off campaign debts which is currently illegal. Reportedly, the Houses minority leader, Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri), would be one of the chief beneficiaries of this last-minute change. What a shocker. Not. Shays-Meehan isnt only about campaign contributions. As the Post reported in the same article:
Whoa. The politicians now in office dont want groups targeting them by name within a month or two of an election. Is this not a brazen attempt at repression of political speech? What kind of reform is that? True, you might get disgusted (as I do) by the mud-slinging, muck-raking depths to which certain groups will descend in the heat of a campaign battle. But thats a price we pay for freedom of expression: putting up with expressions we cant stand. Now, it seems to me that most folks dont know or care whats going on in elections until well into the one- or two-month period before voting day. During that time, incumbent politicians will have, as they always do, ready access to the voting public: press releases, interviews in the mass media, mention in news stories, and taxpayer-funded mailings. But concerned groups, often comprising like-minded individuals who have no effective political voice without pooling their money, will be shut out. No wonder some pundits are calling the bill the Incumbents Protection Act. Moreover, the power and influence of the mass media would be enhanced considerably: as voting day nears, outside organizations would be largely silenced, while editors and reporters would be free, as always, to pontificate, and to pick-and-choose or manufacture whatever news stories they like. So, Shays-Meehan might also be called the Mainstream Media Influence Enhancement Act. Besides, we already have tons of election-related laws on the books that are inadequately enforced. Michelle Malkin wrote about that in a Creators Syndicate column, Feb. 13: Democrat fund-raiser (funny money honey) Maria Hsia was found guilty almost two years ago on five felony counts, and she could have been sentenced to up to 25 years in jail. She was finally sentenced this month to... what? Three months house arrest, three years probation, and a four-figure fine. Malkin sums it up neatly:
The cable talk shows are already awash with experts who disagree on what actual effects Shays-Meehan would have. Some say Democrats would benefit more than Republicans would; others say that President Bush would benefit greatly in the next election cycle. And all of them have their reasons. Who knows for sure? Nobody. (It may be instructive to point out that this attempt at CFR would allegedly fix the problems produced by previous CFR.) Shays-Meehan is a prime example of a bill thats a seedbed for the Law of Unintended Consequences. Connect all the dots, and draw a monstrosity. Lets see.
This kind of reform should never see the light of day in a representative republic that respects constitutional rights of freedom of assembly and speech. Depending on which pundit you read, CFR will be DOA in the Senate, or it will breeze through. Time will tell. And shortly, too, I should think. The legislation that may eventually be presented to the president would be a momentous challenge. I would advise him to rise to that occasion, if need be, as he has done so well before, and to veto this Incumbents-Protection and Mainstream-Media-Influence-Enhancement Act. And to tell the American people exactly why he is vetoing it. Easy to do? Certainly not. But George W. Bush has our ear, as few before have had it: let him use it well. © ELC 2002 + + + + + I think that President Bush's approval of the bill is, perhaps, his greatest failure as chief executive. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Sat. 12/13/03 07:05:04 AM |
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