You know we've been all over the fight to bring the Senate into the 21st Century by mandating electronic filing of their FEC disclosure reports, a bill with wide bipartisan support currently being blocked by one man, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is maintaining an anonymous hold on behalf of an unknown Republican colleague, every one of whom has denied being the culprit.
After Sens. Feingold and Feinstein pushed for unanimous consent for passage of the bill in April, Sen. Bunning announced that there was a Republican still objecting to such consent. Sen. Mitch McConnell, as the Minority Leader, knows who the objector is, and knows what amendments s/he wants to offer. He could release this information but refuses to help move a bill forwards that he claims to support. This is nonsense.
Well, our friends at the Sunlight Foundation are kicking up the pressure more than a notch today with the unveiling of a new website, What'sMcConnellHiding.com, which is chock full of action items and background on his protection of an anonymous hold here, and includes something I haven't seen before: a contest. If you're the first to get Sen. McConnell on video answering questions about this bill, and upload it to YouTube, you can win $500. (Read the Rules to learn more.)
In addition, the Sunlight Foundation is putting up a billboard outside of Louisville on a busy highway targeting McConnell. The local media pressure is real, and it will only increase.
Sen. Russ Feingold, the bill's chief sponsor, posted a diary about a month ago explaining why removing McConnell's hold is crucial:
Several of you have asked about whether the Senate can get around a hold. The answer is yes, but it can be very time-consuming and could result in the bill being weighed down with unrelated or "poison pill" amendments. Basically, the way to get around an objection to action by unanimous consent is for the Majority Leader to bring up the bill and schedule a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to it. That vote takes place two days after a cloture vote is filed. I have no doubt we would win such a vote handily, maybe even unanimously. But then the bill would be subject to amendment and there are many controversial and contentious campaign finance amendments, or even amendments on other topics that might be offered. And the only way to limit those amendments would be to schedule another cloture vote to limit debate. So the process could take several days under the best of circumstances.
All of that could be done, but there are many other worthy bills competing for floor time. This bill is not controversial. No one has given a single reason to oppose it, or even debate it. It is exactly the kind of good, non-controversial bill that should pass the Senate by unanimous consent, and with your help, I hope it will.
Let's help him out. If you live in Kentucky, call Sen. McConnell and demand that he remove the hold. If not, call your own Senators -- especially the Republicans -- and demand that McConnell make public the name of the anonymous objector.
Sunlight, Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, is the best disinfectant. Let's bring Sen. Mitch McConnell into the light.