Congress pushes to close loophole

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | February 3, 2005 | Stephen Dinan

[neverdem]

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The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

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Congress pushes to close loophole

By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published February 3, 2005

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The chief architects of the 2002 campaign finance overhaul introduced a bill yesterday to clamp down on so-called "527 organizations" such as MoveOn.org and the Swift Boat Veterans, which flooded the broadcast airwaves with political commercials last year.

    Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and the group of lawmakers with whom he teamed to pass the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, said the bill would close the 527 organization loophole, which they had not intended to allow.

    The measure has attracted support both from those who pushed the 2002 law and those who opposed it, such as Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican and chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which has jurisdiction over the measure.

    "I'm not in my natural habitat with this group," Mr. Lott said yesterday as he stood with Mr. McCain and other supporters of the campaign finance reform act.

    Mr. Lott said he realizes that law won't change anytime soon but that everyone should play by the same rules, which means tax-exempt 527 groups that want to influence federal elections should be subject to the same regulations as political committees.

    "This issue, if we don't address it, is going to be a huge political calamity in America," Mr. Lott said, calling 527 funding "sewer money."

    Mr. McCain and his supporters had tried to crack down on "soft money," the uncapped donations to political parties and interest groups that often were spent on ads that came close to calling for the election or defeat of a...

[neverdem]

"That should alarm every federally elected member of Congress," he said.

That says it all, another incumbent protection act.

[samtheman]

Free speech means free speech means free speech.

Campaign finance reform is against free speech.

Period.

[John Lenin]

Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and the group of lawmakers with whom he teamed to pass the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, said the bill would close the 527 organization loophole, which they had not intended to allow.

McCain's hatred for Bush borders on insanity, take it from there.

[KarlInOhio]

Some of that "sewer money" was what got the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the air when the MSM was trying to make sure their voices weren't heard.

The Supreme Court decision upholding this law will go down with the Dred Scott Decision as times when idiocy trumped the Constitution and human rights.

[Ender Wiggin]

I don't believe that they did not intend for 527s to have that much influence.

I believe that they intended to shut up some 523c organizations (NRA for one) and allow others to have unfettered freedom (MoveOn for one, A.N.S.W.E.R. for another).

When the SBVets showed up and were very effective, McCain and Soros and all the people pushing for "campaign finance reform" said a collective "uh oh" and now are trying to silence them and other "dissident" groups.

The CFR laws was all about freedom of the left's speech and when others used the tools they had craftily prepared they were taken aback, and are now responding.

[David75]

How about closing loopholes that allow government to shred the Constitution instead?