Free Republic

Barack Obama has published an enemies list and conspiracy web on his presidential campaign website, Fight the Smears.The site lists conservative activists David Bossie, Floyd Brown, Bob Perry, Craig Shirley, Bruce Hawkins and James Lacy.The Obama campaign posted an accompanying graphic that lays out a web of connections between the conservatives, groups they represent and their efforts opposing liberals, including "Swift Boat", "Clinton Impeachment" and "Willie Horton Ad".The text never connects any of those listed to 'smears' against Obama, but instead lists their politcal sins such as working with the Minutemen, Ann Coulter, Gary Aldrich, donating to the Swift Boat...

Rove Gang Moves In McCain Campaign Manager, Rick Davis, was unable to repel a Rovian boarding party with the naming of Steve Schmidt as the new day-to-day manager of the McCain campaign. Davis retains the title but is relegated to “long-term planning.” Schmidt is part of a troika of former Rove aides now in place to revive a campaign that seems to be having trouble defining a message both for McCain and against Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON — Democrats and the media have used the term so much that it's almost an article of faith. But the so-called "Republican attack machine" waiting with piles of unregulated cash to chew up Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is anything but. Obama cited the threat of unregulated attack groups — called "527s" because they're authorized to raise unlimited cash under that section of the Internal Revenue Service code — to justify dropping his pledge to take public financing — along with its spending limits — for the general election campaign. Yet there's no 2008 equivalent to the 2004 Swift...

Liberals Hit the Road on Bush 'Legacy Tour Bus' By Penny Starr CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer June 25, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - Americans United for Change (AUC) unveiled its "museum on wheels" on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. The group is giving tours of the 45-foot, 28-ton bus that is filled with exhibits intended to highlight the apparently failed policies of the Bush administration and its "conservative allies." The bus will be driven around the country this summer to share the exhibits with the American people, organizers said. "The Bush legacy is nothing less than a disaster that leaves behind an economy...

Senators Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, stepped down Wednesday from their positions with an independent group that released a pair of Internet advertisements attacking Senator Barack Obama on Iraq. Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, were both on the policy advisory board to the organization, Vets for Freedom, which on Wednesday released its second Web advertisement in less than a week attacking Mr. Obama. The senators’ positions with the group, which describes itself as a grass-roots advocacy organization pushing for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan,...

John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent "527" group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict of interest policy barring such arrangements. Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to the group Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign’s payroll, but would also step down from his role...

Wealthy Democrats are preparing a four-month, $40 million media campaign centered on attacks on Senator John McCain. And it will be led by David Brock, the former investigative reporter who first gained fame in the 1990s as a right-wing, anti-Clinton journalist. The planned campaign is the product of a shakeup in the top ranks of the struggling independent Democratic groups. Brock, now best known as the ex-conservative founder of the liberal group Media Matters, last month quietly assumed the chairmanship of what's expected to be the main vehicle for independent Democratic attacks on McCain, now called Progressive Media USA. The...

April 01, 2008 B'rer McCain and the Briar Patch By Clarice Feldman In the classic Song of the South the wily rabbit begs the fox not to throw him into the briar patch knowing (what the fox doesn't) that he can easily escape the bushes' thorns and jump off to freedom, and that the fox will certainly do what he has begged him not to do. I loathe the co-called Campaign Finance Reform Act sponsored jointly by Senators McCain and Feingold after an unethical, if not illegal, largely sub rosa campaign by the tax exempt Pew Foundation. To me the...

When Democrats contemplate the apocalypse these days, they have visions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton slugging it out à la Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter at the 1980 convention. The campaign's current trajectory is, in fact, alarmingly similar to the one that produced that disastrous affair. Back then, Carter had built up a delegate lead with early wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, and several Southern states. But, as the primary season dragged on, Kennedy began pocketing big states and gaining momentum. Once all the voting ended and Kennedy came up short, he eyed the New York convention as a...

McCain Slams Swiftboat Vets Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 1:19:32 pm PST Has anyone ever really shown that the allegations made by the Swift Boat Veterans against John F. Kerry were false? If someone has refuted the charges conclusively, I’ve never seen it—which makes John McCain’s continuing antipathy toward the Swiftboaters inexplicable: McCain Scrambles to Control Backers. Speaking to reporters aboard his campaign tour bus late Tuesday, McCain acknowledged that conservative independent groups pursuing a similar line to Cunningham’s could be impossible to control. “I think you have to worry about that, particularly the 527s,� McCain said, referring to the...

Ok, I did a quick search on 527's in FR forums and didn't find a more appropriate place for this, so I will start a thread to be a reference and link repository for this idea. As of today, it appears Mr. Obama is going to be the Dem's Presidential candidate in 2008, unless the Clintstones manage to pull something out with their dirty tricks. This presents one more of many problems for true conservatives in this election, namely, that Mr. Obama is, at best, and empty suit, or worst, a flaming commie, in the arena of ideas, and our...

He says he doesn't like them, and he says he doesn't need them. In fact, Barack Obama regularly criticizes the operations and the influence of 527s, scolding John Edwards and Hillary Clinton for their attraction to the outside political groups. But as the New York Times points out, Obama has become attractive to them as well, and benefits significantly from their assistance: After months of denouncing the influence of special-interest money in politics, Senator Barack Obama is nonetheless entering a critical phase of the presidential campaign benefiting from millions of dollars being spent outside campaign finance rules. Mr. Obama has...

A panicked and cash-short Clinton campaign is seriously considering giving up on the Nevada caucuses and on the South Carolina primary in order to regroup and to save resources for the massive 19-state mega-primary on February 5. At the same time, some top independent expenditure groups supporting Clinton have been exploring the creation of an anti-Obama "527 committee" that would take unlimited contributions from a few of Clinton's super-rich backers and from a handful of unions to finance television ads and direct mail designed to tarnish the Illinois Senator's image.

Senate Democrats are considering placing curbs on soft-money 527 groups amid evidence that they are beginning to lose the political advantage these largely unregulated funds have given them over Republicans. This is a move Democrats had strenuously opposed during the last Congress, when they were believed to benefit from the lion’s share of 527 money, but now there is evidence that more of the money from these groups, named for a clause in the tax code, is flowing to the GOP. Meanwhile, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (Ill.), is planning to introduce legislation in the next...

Despondent after George W. Bush won re-election, a small group of billionaire Democrats met in San Francisco in December 2004 to reflect on John Kerry’s failure to capture the White House. George Soros, Progressive Insurance Chairman Peter B. Lewis, and S&L tycoons Herb and Marion Sandler were angry and depressed. They felt they had been taken—seduced by the siren song of pollsters and the mainstream media who had assured them that the capture of the executive mansion was theirs. But despite giving millions of dollars to liberal candidates and 527 political committees, the donors came away with nothing. At about...

The advocacy groups that rose to prominence in 2004 have scaled back their federal activity this election. Instead, 527s are focusing on state issues and elections. Liberals have raised more money than conservatives. In politics, the money behind the message speaks volumes. And although the issue advocates known as 527 committees continue to be somewhat elusive, the Center for Responsive Politics has found that these tax-exempt groups are increasingly putting their 2006 money into state-level messages, instead of focusing on national issues. 527 committees raise unlimited money for political activities, such as voter mobilization efforts, and use advertising to push...

Did you ever wonder how a small group of Boomer radicals took over the Democratic Party, the universities, the media and Bolshiewood? David Horowitz may know. What’s more, he thinks it’s happening again, with what he and Richard Poe call the “Shadow Party,” a “George Soros conglomerate” that can mobilize some $300 million in political money to control the Dems. Horowitz explains, in a chilling interview with Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, based on his new book with Richard Poe called The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party (Nelson...

    The House yesterday narrowly approved new regulations for political 527 groups funded by multimillionaires -- a change to campaign-finance law that Republicans argue will curb the influence the "super-wealthy" have on elections.     Campaign-finance reform measures passed in 2002 that banned parties and candidates from receiving unlimited donations "actually empowered these ideologically driven outside groups," said Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Republican. "This bill will help restore some balance to our system."     The House passed the measure by a 218-209 vote over the objections of most Democrats and 18 Republicans who felt it restricts the First Amendment rights of citizens.     The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday to crack down on independent political groups that spent nearly a half-billion dollars in the 2004 election, most of it trying to help Democrats. The measure would impose limits on individual contributions to those groups and require them to register with the Federal Election Commission. On a largely party-line vote of 218-209, the House sent the bill to the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Congress may want to examine campaign financing in advance of the...

www.gunowners.orgApr 2006 House To Vote This Week On Further Limiting Free Speech Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Tuesday, April 4, 2006 Remember the Swift Boat Veterans? After a presidential election which was determined by fewer than 120,000 Ohio voters, it is clear that George Bush is president of the United States -- rather than John Kerry -- because of the swift boat veterans and because of pro-gun support. For their part, the swift boat veterans formed a political organization under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code -- and their organization was...

Do you remember the campaign-finance-reform riddle of a few years ago? Democrats, despite their image as the party of the little guy, were deeply dependent on big-money donors to keep the party afloat. Yet they supported reform, even though it would work against them by forbidding those big-money donors from giving their big money directly to the Democratic Party.Republicans, on the other hand, despite their image as the party of plutocrats, actually had far more small-money donors than Democrats. But they opposed reform, even though it would help them by making small-money donors the key to party finance.Back then, one...

WASHINGTON - The Federal Election Commission failed to give a good reason for refusing to rein in nonprofit political groups that spent huge sums in the 2004 presidential elections, a judge has ruled in a case brought by President Bush's campaign and lawmakers. In a 34-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said the FEC failed to give "a reasoned explanation" for its decision not to issues rules to require so-called "527" groups to register as federal political action committees and face the same strict fundraising, spending and disclosure rules PACs do. But Sullivan stopped short of saying the...

 The Federal Election Commission’s suit against the Club for Growth continues this agency’s war on the First Amendment and its defense of incumbents from criticism of their policies. The FEC’s claims and legal theories are a bizarre interpretation of the Club’s mission, the Constitution, the laws adopted by Congress and their own regulations governing nonprofit organizations.The Club’s principle purpose is to advocate for and defend pro-growth policies. One of the ways we do that is through the Club for Growth PAC, which allows Club members to donate to pro-growth candidates and independent expenditure campaigns. We have consulted with counsel every...

A year ago, the liberal group America Coming Together was on the cutting edge of national politics, spending tens of millions of dollars on a massive voter-mobilization project in every presidential battleground state. The dream was that ACT -- heavily funded by billionaire George Soros -- would play a decisive role in getting Democratic nominee John F. Kerry elected president and then remain in business as a permanent force in liberal politics. Steve Rosenthal, who launched America Coming Together to mobilize voters for Democrat John F. Kerry, said maintaining momentum after the election proved to be harder than expected. Billionaire...

AS HOWARD DEAN stormed through Boston last week, the media focus was on the controversy stirred by his recent series of brash remarks. (To paraphrase, he has said that Republicans are a bunch of white Christians who don't make honest livings.) But the real problem facing Dean right now isn't his mouth. In the past several weeks, major Democratic donors have begun to grumble that the onetime presidential candidate turned party chairman isn't paying them enough attention and that the Democratic National Committee isn't raising enough money to compete with its Republican counterpart. The numbers seem to support the donors'...

Guess who's having second thoughts about the merits of campaign-finance reform? Some of the very same liberal groups that for years championed tighter controls on free speech and political donations, that's who. Exhibit A came yesterday. The New York Campaign Finance Board preempted a vote by the City Council to loosen the limits on political contributions by unions. The significance of the board's open retreat will be felt well beyond City Hall — because the New York experience reinforces a national trend against current campaign-finance laws. These restrictions have always produced unintended outcomes — mostly bad: They've made elections less...

What issue could possibly draw conservative Republicans and the Congressional Black Caucus into a legislative alliance? This morning, the Washington Times reports that the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's provisions on campaign limits hit sour notes with both groups, as traditional African-American outreach efforts got starved in favor of the massive influence of George Soros' 527 strategies in 2004: Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus are teaming up with conservative Republicans to push for the first major changes in the 2002 campaign-finance reform bill, most admitting that they made a mistake in voting for the bill three years ago....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614 “MoveOn.org’s vulgar depiction of a violent attack on the Capitol -- a building that symbolizes our democracy -- is beyond the pale of acceptable political discourse. Democrats know Senator Frist’s efforts are intended to restore Senate tradition by granting highly qualified judicial nominees the vote they deserve and have received for the past 214 years. It’s sad that the Democrats and their third party allies would choose to play on Americans’ fears instead of engaging in constructive political debate.” - RNC Communications Director Brian JonesMoveon.Org Has Long History Of Airing Inflammatory And Inappropriate Ads...

Something remarkable is happening as a Republican Congress and president move to crackdown on 527 groups like the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: Liberals are realizing that something's fishy. Three years after the passage of McCain-Feingold (a.k.a. the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, a.k.a. the End of Free Speech As We Know It), a smattering of Democrats and liberal activists are slowly coming to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let the government decide who can and cannot engage in political speech. After all, what would prevent incumbents in Congress...

When it comes time for the inevitable legal challenge to the latest iteration of the First Amendment-trampling legislation known as campaign finance "reform," we hope the Supreme Court takes a careful look at a dispatch in yesterday's issue of Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. Dating back to their egregious 1976 error in the landmark case of Buckley v. Valeo, the justices have held that the public interest in preventing corruption is adequate to allow limits on campaign contributions, that is, restrictions on political speech that would otherwise be protected by the First Amendment. Since then, the slope...

MEET THE PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAYOut Of The Mainstream Organization Providing Democrats With Resources To Block President Bush's Judicial Nominee     "'People for the American Way' is yet another example of an extreme special interest group that Democrats allow to control their agenda in Congress. It is troubling that Senate Democrats would align themselves with a radical political agenda far out of the mainstream on such important issues to our country. Blocking well-qualified nominees for political gain may sound like a good idea for liberal extremists, but it is certainly not in the best interest of the American...

527s? That’s so over. Now, the big money is going somewhere else. Although Democrats often maintain that their unprecedented outside-the-party campaign against President Bush last year, led by the so-called 527 groups, was a broad-based, grassroots effort, it was, in fact dependent in substantial part on just five donors: financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis, Hollywood mogul Stephen Bing, and the California investors Herbert and Marion Sandler. Together, they spent about $78 million in the effort to defeat the president — more than the $75 million in federal funds that each presidential candidate received to conduct his entire...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Jones 202-863-8614 “The Campaign for America’s Future is relying on fabrications and false assumptions in its political attacks against President Bush’s efforts to preserve Social Security for future generations.  The realities are President Bush has pledged not to change benefits for Americans over 55 years old and Social Security will go bankrupt unless action is taken.  If this out-of-the-mainstream interest group really cares about the future, it should stop misleading voters and start campaigning to modernize Social Security.” - Brian Jones, RNC Communications Director  Campaign For America’s Future (CAF) Underestimates Potential Market Gains From Personal Retirement...

This is the moment when we list our priorities for the new year, counting off the most important social challenges the country faces and the remedies we'd like to see our elected officials adopt. Normally, we urge that all this be accomplished in a spirit of bipartisanship. All that requires a leap of faith that's beyond us this season. Instead, we'd like to pick out a few areas that may be a little lower on the agenda, but where the need is aching and the potential bridges between the parties are already clear and sturdy. All it takes is a...

It's encouraging to see signs of life in Washington, particularly on the Republican side of the aisle, over the obvious need to plug the newest subterranean pipe for unregulated campaign funds from big labor, big corporations and just plain big money. Of all the subplots in the presidential election, none were as sorry as the Democrats' pioneering "527" groups - named for the section of the tax code that governs them. The 527's were intended to circumvent the law's strictures against having unlimited soft money flood into political races. The Democrats built these new shadow-party advocacy groups to attack the...

Minnesota campaign finance authorities imposed a record fine Tuesday on a political "527" group that spent money in Minnesota on behalf of DFL House candidates and young-voter turnout. Citing a failure by the 21st Century Democrats to adhere to disclosure laws, the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board imposed fines of $292,500 on a 21st Century Minnesota committee and $25,000 on its parent national committee. 21st Century Democrats has been in the spotlight lately because it raised $300,000 from Matt Entenza, Minnesota House DFL minority leader. The board's statement does not name Entenza, nor does he appear to have any...

Our friends at CBS News are at it again -- suggesting that blogs, bloggers, and everything related to non-mainstream media reporting is at the root cause of the troubles in the industry. Not the almost unconscionably poor job that the CBS News research division has been doing in vetting stories for accuracy, nor the obvious left-leaning bias of most of its broadcasters…but blogs. Haven’t these people heard the warnings from one of the organizations that they hold in such high esteem -- the Occupational Safety and Health Administration -- regarding the tossing of inanimate missiles from the confines of one’s...

Looking back on election 2004, it's possible to see John Kerry's loss as a kind of modest electoral near-miracle -- if, that is, you think (as I do) that the Democratic Party has only a minimal reality. Who can doubt that the Republicans really are a party -- with all the usual divisions as well as cobbled-together constituencies with contradictory needs, desires, and agendas. Once upon a time, back in the 1940s, when the Republicans looked to be an out-of-power junior party for the foreseeable future, that might have been a good description of the lumpy New Deal Democrats. But...

December 17, 2004 Advocacy Groups Spent Record Amount on 2004 Election By MICHAEL JANOFSKY ASHINGTON, Dec. 16 - Advocacy groups supporting Senator John Kerry's presidential bid outspent those supporting President Bush's by more than three to one during the last election cycle, according to a new report by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan investigative organization. The report also showed that Republican groups narrowed the gap in the final three months of the campaign, a period in which groups like Swift Vets and P.O.W.'s for Truth proved effective in attacking Mr. Kerry and helping Mr. Bush win by...

Liberal activists are pondering how pro-Democratic advocacy groups, such as America Coming Together and MoveOn.org, exceeded their goal in turning out record numbers of voters on behalf of John Kerry yet still lost to George W. Bush. The answer is simple. While Democratic groups did a good job in mobilizing their base, the Republicans did a great job. The reasons for the GOP's success are mainly due to a better use of volunteers and a centralized, Party-based strategy that allowed for more effective coordination. To a significant extent, the Kerry campaign and the Democratic Party depended on "527" committees to...

WASHINGTON - Whatever the reasons John Kerry and the Democrats lost the race for the White House, lack of money wasn't one. Tax-exempt pro-Democratic groups raising big checks for this year's election collected almost twice as much money as their Republican rivals in the presidential race, a study shows. The financial advantage comes in addition to record fund raising by Kerry, the unsuccessful candidate, and the Democratic Party. In all, nonparty political groups, known as 527s because of the tax code section that covers them, raised about $534 million and spent roughly $544 million in the 2003-04 election cycle, the...

After the 2000 presidential campaign, strategists for President Bush came to a startling realization: Democrats watch more television than Republicans. So by buying millions of dollars' worth of television advertising time, Republicans were spending their money on audiences that tended to vote Democratic. What to do? With the luxury of four years until the next election, the Bush team examined voters' television-viewing habits and cross-referenced them with surveys of voters' political and lifestyle preferences. This led to an unusual step for a presidential campaign: it cut the proportion of money that it put into broadcast television and diverted more to...

Dec. 13 issue - In the closing weeks of the campaign, a reclusive Texas home builder pumped nearly $7 million into two "independent" political groups to help finance TV ads against John Kerry. The builder, Robert Perry of Houston, got attention in August when he gave $200,000 in seed money for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth—the so-called 527 group that attacked Kerry's war record. Campaign records examined by NEWSWEEK show that, in October alone, Perry gave $3.8 million more to the Swift Boat vets and $3 million to Progress for America, a separate 527 organized by a GOP consultant...

It is [said]... the only sure winner in American politics is the media.... Maybe not this time. Big Media lost big. But it was more than a loss. It was an abdication of authority. Large media institutions, such as CBS or the New York Times, have been regarded as nothing if not authoritative. In the Information Age, authority is a priceless franchise. But it is this franchise that Big Media, incredibly, has just thrown away. It did so by choosing to go into overt opposition to one party's candidate, a sitting president. It stooped to conquer... National Guard... Abu Ghraib......

[O]ne big loser was... McCain-Feingold campaign finance "reform".... Preliminary reports say a record $3.9 billion was spent on this year's Presidential and Congressional campaigns, 30% more than four years ago. Instead of severing the supposedly corrupting links between big money and politics, the reform's main effect has been merely to channel the cash through different political hands, and with less accountability. ...McCain-Feingold has succeeded in the narrow goal of staunching the flow of contributions from corporations, Big Labor and wealthy individuals to the two major political parties. Labor unions have turned more of their attention to voter registration and turnout....

2004 Cycle Large Donors to PoliticalMoneyLine's Key 527 Groups(excludes transfers) 1 . Soros, George $26,530,105 2 . Lewis, Peter B $23,147,220 3 . BING, STEPHEN L MR $13,952,682 4 . Sandler, Herbert M and Marion O $9,482,059 5 . Rappaport, Andrew & Deborah C $8,982,900 6 . PERRY, BOB J $8,090,000 7 . Service Employees Int'l Union $7,199,101 8 . AFL-CIO $6,972,796 9 . American Fedn of St Cty & Municipal Empls $6,870,700 10 . PICKENS, T BOONE MR $5,520,000 more...   2004 Cycle 527 Committees** 1 . Joint Victory Campaign 2004 $65,553,751 2 . ACT NOW PAC -...

I just answered the phone (unknown name/number) foolishly thinking it might be a poll (I've voted in every election over a lot of years and don't recall ever being polled). Instead, I received a totally inaccurate vmail message (I have also received others on my vmail over the past couple of weeks that are totally bogus regarding Republican candidates). This one was from New House Pac - address Washington, DC (the "other Washington"). I did a google search and found them, but haven't taken the time to read about them yet (saw Pelosi on another search), but know they are...

WASHINGTON - More wealthy donors are giving $1 million or more to partisan political organizations now than before a 2002 law took effect, aimed at removing big money from federal elections. The top giver is George Soros, the billionaire financier who jump-started pro-Democratic efforts to find a way to keep spending the unlimited checks the Democratic Party can no longer collect. Soros, who has given roughly $24 million to various groups opposing President Bush (news - web sites), said he donated so much to these so-called 527s to help the Democrats compete financially with Republicans. "I have to make the...

Earlier this afternoon I received an email in my private box from an organization that purported to be former Bush supporters who have "seen the light" and have decided to support John Kerry. The text of the email is as follows: A week ago, we sent you an email asking for help debunking anti-Bush documents. After receiving hundreds of responses, it become clear that all the documents were actually real: the Bush/Cheney DUIs, the Ken Lay letters, and even the bin Laden memo. For more information visit the documents page: http://www.yesbushcan.com/falsedocs.shtml We also received hundreds of emails from concerned...

In a 1974 burst of reformist zeal, the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to put in place strict limits on the amount of money individuals, PACs and even political parties could spend on campaigns. Such limitations, reformers argued, would make campaigns less expensive and less negative. Further, by removing the corrupting influence of money, the whole legislative process would magically become purer, fairer and wiser. The reformers could not have been more wrong. The 1974 reforms served (at first) as little more than an incumbent-protection scheme. Later, when the courts ruled that candidates could not be prohibited from spending their...