* Got to read this. Everything GOP accused Clinton/Gore of they do more of much more of shamelessly. Pollution lobbyist and foreign money pouring in even as the energy sector rips off consumers for record amounts despite no real energy shortage.
Thursday, May 24, 2001
New York Times News Service
Just as the House prepares to take up campaign finance reform, along come President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to give the cause a major assist. This week Bush has been participating even more questionable kind of fund-raising events than those the Republicans deplored during the Clinton years. Cheney even held a reception for 400 lobbyists, activists and donors at his home, defending the use of his official residence just as President Bill Clinton defended the White House coffees and sleepovers. Clearly, Congress needs to force the administration to fulfill its pledge to restore honor and integrity in Washington by passing the campaign finance bill in July.
Ever since the Senate acted on campaign reform in April, supporters in the House have been pressing the Republican leadership to act. Last week Speaker Dennis Hastert pledged to Christopher Shays, R-Conn., who is co-sponsor of the leading reform bill in the House, that the issue would be taken up after the Fourth of July. Shays says that Hastert has assured him of a process that is fair and open, with full opportunity for lawmakers to vote on a bill that mirrors the one passed in the Senate. That is an important pledge, because it is imperative for the House bill to be as close as possible to the Senate version in order to have it sent back to the Senate and approved without having to go through a conference committee process.
Shays and his co-sponsor, Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., probably have the votes to pass the measure in the House, where campaign reform was approved in 1998 and 1999. They are working hard to address the concerns of the Congressional Black Caucus, which fears that campaign reform might sideline other election reforms that would remove obstacles to minority voting. Led by Tom DeLay of Texas, foes of campaign finance reform among House Republicans are aiming to use every maneuver they can to derail reform and keep their recent windfall of soft money, particularly record amounts from the energy lobby.
Bush, perhaps sensitive to the potential criticism, has waited until now to take on his role as fund-raiser in chief. Tuesday night, however, he attended a black-tie "presidential gala" for lobbyists and other rich donors that raised pledges of more than $24 million, all of it in unregulated "soft money" that will be banned if campaign reform passes. Cheney held his own gala reception at his home Monday night, with his office asserting that it was proper because it was not a fund-raising event per se, just an event attended by donors who happen to donate money. That distinction was correctly laughed at by Republicans when Clinton and Vice President Al Gore tried to make it for the events they attended in years past. Now the GOP has taken such abuses to new heights. It would seem there is a clear double standard here now.
The events have embarrassed some top Republicans. As The New York Times reports Wednesday, at least three Cabinet members have decided against holding meetings with donors in their offices, though one or two others have gone ahead with them. The committee raising money for Republican Senate candidates canceled an event at the Mexican Cultural Institute, an adjunct of the embassy, when questions were raised about foreign donations in the press. It turns out that the Republicans have held fundraiser dinners at the British and Finnish embassies in years past, even as they deplored the funneling of foreign money into Democratic coffers. Embarrassment is not the appropriate response, of course. Changing the law, and banning unlimited soft money, is, particularly when "by coincidence" some of these very same lobbyist donors have been awarded top spots regulating the very industries they represent. No doubt we have not heard the last of this issue particularly judging from the actions of the new administration." |
