So who is responsible for the secret hold on Russ Feingold's bipartisan electronic disclosure bill? Our process of elimination whittled it down to Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Judd Gregg (R-NH), so when Kyl firmly denied it yesterday, it was over, right?
Wrong!, says the Washington Post:
Before dawn, the [Sunlight Foundation] group sent an e-mail blast to 200 members who live in New Hampshire and Arizona and they started dialing. "Kyl said, 'It's not me,' about an hour after that," said Ellen S. Miller, the executive director.
But from Gregg, there was silence.
At 5 p.m., his spokeswoman, Erin Rath, replied to a reporter's inquiry by e-mail: "As a matter of practice, Senator Gregg does not use secret holds."
But in this instance? "No," she replied.
So, whodunit?
"Is it possible that someone lied to one of their constituents saying they were not the person who placed a hold on the bill? That is always possible," Miller said. "But I'd be astounded by it."
We are faced with two options in this detour, each with its own pros and cons. In Call Everyone, we can call every Republican Senator again and repeat this work from scratch to make sure each has firmly, concretely and unmistakably denied being the Senator who requested the hold. This option may take a lot of time, but it eventually will lead to the correct answer, assuming each office is telling the truth.
Our second option is Operation Bluegrass. Because, as it turns out, there is one Republican Senator who absolutely knows who's responsible for this hold, and it's Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has never been a fan of campaign finance regulation of any kind, though he has claimed to support this bill. Both Sens. Lamar! Alexander (R-TN) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) have confirmed that McConnell knows who's responsible for the hold.
So in Operation Bluegrass, you just call Sen. McConnell's office at (202) 224-2541 and ask them: which one of your Senators is responsible for the anonymous hold? are you responsible for the denial of unanimous consent? Be civil, but be firm, and let us know what they tell you.
Sen. McConnell is up for reelection next year and already knows he's vulnerable, and your calls can influence him to do the right thing. One anonymous Senator can't be allowed the ability to hold up this simple, bipartisan legislation. Make the call.
edited to add: If you're going to call other Senators' offices, two tips:
- The best way to phrase the question may be "Does Senator X oppose taking up and passing the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act?", because that avoids the whole "it's not really a hold" question.
- In the interests of conservation of resources, skip the 13 Republicans who are co-sponsoring the legislation.