Lost in the scant coverage of the House Democrats' attempt to pass a campaign spending disclosure bill is the fact that caving to the NRA is not just a cowardly political act. It's also unnecessary!
Let's think about this for a second... 50 or so "Blue Dog" Democrats refused to support the legislation after the NRA raised objections. What they are objecting to are new rules that would require them to disclose the source of their funding for campaign activities. Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign sums up the situation very nicely in a recent op-ed.
Among other things, the DISCLOSE Act requires that advocacy groups reveal the major sources of funding for their independent expenditures late in the campaigns of federal candidates for office. But in response to complaints by the NRA bosses who don’t want to tell the public where their money comes from, the 53 Democrats who receive money from the NRA apparently insisted the bill be changed. FULL LETTER
If this bill were to pass without any exemptions, one could imagine an NRA ad lambasting a candidate ending with a soundbite something like this: The National Rifle Association, Exxon and Monsanto are responsible for the content of this ad. At this point the targeted politician can scream bloody murder about the underhanded tactics of big business trying to boot him or her out of office.
But no... Sadly, the prospect of having an effective tool against big-monied interests is not as alluring as the NRA's campaign contributions. So what we have as a result are politicians opposing a bill that would make it harder for the NRA or any other group to mount the sort of devastating stealth media campaigns we've seen in the past.
It has to be the money, otherwise it's just pure cowardice. And as Helmke points out in his letter, it doesn't even have anything to do with gun rights! This is simply about finding a way to re-balance the scales after the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United decision.
The problem of course, is that as soon as these lilly-livered Blue Dogs got their exemption, it undermined the ENTIRE bill. Rep. Van Hollen reportedly is close to getting the votes. That may be the case, but if it passes with this idiotic exemption based on nothing other than wanting to avoid a political fight or wanting to please a powerful donor, the "half a loaf" crowd will have some 'splainin to do!