The GOP congressional leadership is sneaking a provision through Congress that will subvert campaign finance reform and allow Tom DeLay and others to exceed contribution caps.
This the GOP Re-Election Act. It's disgraceful and hypocritical. The rot at the Republican's immoral core continues. I found it at capitol buzz. This has to be stopped, though it will be tough since Sen. Bill Frist is counting on it to help his presidential campaign effort.
Here's how
Roll Call (requires subscription) described the meaure.
The Senate's two top Republican leaders have given ringing endorsements to an appropriations rider that would allow leadership political action committees to transfer unlimited sums to the national party committees.
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), whose presidential aspirations would be greatly boosted if the provision were to become law, said before the start of the recess that he is "very supportive" of the idea. Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is also pushing the change.
The provision is part of the Treasury and Justice appropriations bill, which is expected to be considered in September. Its high-level support makes it more likely that it will remain part of the must-pass spending bill, although Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has promised to fight what he believes would undermine a fundamental tenet of the campaign finance structure he
helped author.
Like all other political action committees, leadership PACs are currently subject to a $15,000 annual limit on the amount they can transfer to national party committees. The proposed language would treat leadership PACs like candidates' personal campaign committees when it comes to transfers to the national parties.
McCain has indicated he will aggressively oppose the language on the floor. The Republican Senator believes the rider would allow lawmakers to easily circumvent contribution limits established as far back at the 1970s and which Congress reaffirmed in the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.
McConnell, the chamber's leading proponent of loosening restrictions on campaign funding, has spent much of the past eight years dueling with McCain over campaign finance provisions. Frist, a likely contender for the 2008 GOP
presidential nomination, stands to be the single greatest beneficiary of the measure because of his prowess in raising funds for his Volunteer PAC. McCain could turn out to be his biggest rival for the GOP nod.
The measure was already attached earlier this year to legislation that would subject 527 groups to the same prohibition on using soft money to influence elections that BCRA outlawed for federal candidates and national party committees. That measure has stalled in the Senate, however, and the latest effort reflects a widely held belief that the 527 bill may not make it
through the chamber this year. (snip)
As I said about Karl Rove the other day, if power didn't corrupt these guys would corrupt it. We need to get some attention on this issue before Democrats find themselves buried in another avalanche of filthy GOP money.