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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (6603)	11/16/2003 4:46:56 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

FYI -- From a Boston newspaper..... Kerry - A follower OF Dean - not a leader-Globe Newspaper . boston.com. By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist, 11/16/2003 The ink was barely dry on the public service award to two congressmen from New England for their efforts to reform campaign finance rules when two presidential candidates from New England ditched the whole system. US Representatives Martin Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, were being honored in California for their bipartisan work to reduce the corrupting influence of money in politics on the same day Howard Dean decided to refuse taxpayer subsidies to avoid the spending limits that go with them. John Kerry quickly followed suit. So much for campaign finance reform. President Bush had opted out of the public financing system, went the Democrats' arms-race rationale, and if they did not join him in the big money chase they would be at a competitive disadvantage. Instead of bludgeoning Bush with an issue that infuriates the electorate -- the obscene amount of money that fuels political campaigns -- the two challengers have chosen to raise obscene amounts of money to fuel their own campaigns. This, Dean and Kerry tell us, does not mean they have abandoned their commitment to publicly financed campaigns. It is just on hiatus, until the next election or, until the next election in which they are not candidates. They aren't unprincipled; they're pragmatic. Kerry, already on the ropes in the fight for the Democratic nomination because of his terminal inconsistency, will rue this decision more than Dean. Unlike the junior senator from Massachusetts, the former governor of Vermont is pulling in millions of dollars in small donations from energized voters, many of them engaged by politics for the first time. No one is going to confuse that kind of grass-roots support with the fat-cat money mill that has generated $100 million for an incumbent president with no challenger in the primaries. Kerry, on the other hand, has been watching his campaign contributions drop as fast as his poll numbers. Why he thinks the image of a desperate but wealthy candidate writing personal checks to bail out his sinking campaign will broaden his appeal is a mystery. What if Kerry had led last week instead of followed? What if, rather than whining that Dean's decision forced his hand, Kerry had stood his ground? It might have meant a cash-strapped campaign after the primaries, but it might have ensured that he was still around after the primaries. The 30-year-old campaign finance system is still a mess, despite recent reforms that Meehan, Shays, and Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold steered through Congress. Democrats who accept federal funds would have to cap their spending at $45 million through the primaries, even as Bush rakes in $200 million for the general election campaign. Special interests can no longer channel money to a candidate through the national parties, and the law limits donations to presidential candidates to $2,000. That is also an advantage for Republicans whose supporters are more likely to write a check that size than less wealthy rank-and-file Democrats. Why wouldn't Kerry seize on the size of Bush's campaign war chest as a metaphor for what is wrong with this administration? Those contributors are writing this country's energy, environmental, and economic policies, to say nothing of their no-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq. Kerry missed an opportunity to show some political courage by arguing for a better campaign finance system instead of abandoning it. To use the Red Sox metaphor he is so fond of: Voters are tired of being told to wait until next year. Symbolism is as hard a currency as money in politics. The ordinary men and women writing those small checks to Howard Dean might not take their country back from the moneyed interests being serviced so well by the Bush administration. But John Kerry sure isn't going to take it back by mortgaging the mansion on Louisburg Square. Eileen McNamara is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at mcnamara@globe.com. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.