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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (227103)	2/14/2002 12:09:05 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I met a girl by that name. I have never understood a parent naming a child that would invent a name that was either difficult to pronounce or spell. I think it would almost always be a disadvantage. * * *

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (227103)	2/14/2002 1:04:47 PM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Chairman of the Federal Election Commission: McCain -Feingold will not stop the flow of money, it will reroute it. Provisions are "unconstitutional", others "unenforcible": New Bill Would Change Flow of Money Wed Feb 13, 4:03 AM ET By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Fund-raisers and campaign watchdogs predicted a campaign finance measure set for a vote Wednesday would dry up big checks to the parties while rerouting it into the system in ways that political interests already are prepared to exploit. The bill by Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., would ban unlimited soft-money donations that businesses, unions and others make to national party committees and congressional campaigns. It also would prohibit the airing of certain types of political ads within 60 days of an election or 30 days of a primary. David Mason, chairman of the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites), said he opposes the legislation, set for a House vote Wednesday, and expects parts of it would be "difficult if not impossible to enforce." He cited the so-called millionaire provision that would increase donation limits for Senate candidates facing opponents wealthy enough to finance their own campaigns. It is so complex that candidates would have a hard time figuring out when and how to use it, and it would be hard for the FEC to enforce, Mason said. The bill also requires the FEC to set rules on what constitutes an illegal level of coordination between a campaign committee and a special-interest group. Mason said the bill seems to provide contradictory instructions. "This bill does go a considerable way to try to close off known loopholes, but in my personal view you're very likely to have corporations and unions and individual donors simply find other ways to spend their money, but still on politics," said Mason, a Republican. Still, Mason said he would do his best to enforce the bill if it becomes law. University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato also predicted big checks would continue to find their way into politics. Nonprofit groups focused on grass-roots political activities such as get-out-the-vote drives probably would spring up, financed by "the very same large interests and wealthy individuals who have the sophistication and wherewithal to write $100,000 checks to the parties," Sabato said. "I'll bet you we have things like `civic organization fill-in-the-blank,'" Sabato said. "They're going to find a way to spend that money, because they have to — they think they have to — to defend their interest in Congress." Haley Barbour, finance chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, predicted the measure would drive political money out of the FEC-regulated system into an unregulated one where special interests rather than political parties or candidates run many of the ads, with voters having little or no idea who is behind them. "Shays-Meehan will make special-interest groups more powerful, not less powerful," Barbour said. "We have seen the labor unions spend hundreds of millions of dollars in this unregulated system in the past. And Shays-Meehan will drive the business community and other people and groups to do the same thing the unions are doing." Campaign attorney Michael Trister said he doubts the measure would eliminate soft money from politics. At minimum, political parties could encourage the creation of groups with similar missions that could spend soft money, such as a Republican or Democratic "issues committee," Trister said. Such a committee could even be run by a longtime party fund-raiser, he said. "As long as it's not controlled by the party, there's nothing they can do about it," said Trister, whose clients include the AFL-CIO and several liberal-leaning nonprofits and political committees. story.news.yahoo.com So campaign finance "reform" is a total sham. Now they tell us!