The Left Catches On

Looks like Tommy Daschle has finally figured out that the campaign finance reform he and his buddies on the left pushed so hard for is one of the things that defeated him. It was those eight liberal groups, funded in a big way by George Soros, that frauduently foisted campaign finance reform on all of us. Ryan Sager, who busted this fraud, has more to say in his commentary.

Such keen, if belated insight, seems to be what motivated former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle to pen a guest column for the inside-the-beltway political paper Roll Call last Tuesday, warning Democrats that the current round of regulation is a trap.



"This past autumn, special interest groups rushed to South Dakota to attack my record and question my values. Many of their advertisements were harshly negative in substance and tone, and they reflected little respect for fact or substance," Daschle writes of last year's election season, which turned him out of office. "At times like this, in anger and frustration, candidates may wish that Congress could and would outlaw such advertisements. After a season of swift boats, in South Dakota and elsewhere, that wish is powerful, and it is understandable."



Now, why Daschle thinks it's "understandable" that Congress should want to shut up people who criticize congressmen is puzzling, but that's a topic for another day. For now, let's just cue the scary music.

Strikes me that Tommy is whining a lot here. After all, look at the efforts put forth by moveon and the other left wing 527's to defeat Bush. Once again, heavily funded by George Soros, these group aired some of the most vicious and nasty ads of the 2004 campaign. They mangled the truth in their frenzy to defeat Bush.

Daschle's attempt to cut a fine line between the current assault of 527s and the broader assault on free speech in 2002 leaves his credibility in tatters. Both parties signed onto McCain-Feingold because, at the time, each secretly believed it was getting one over on the other. Democrats held to an outdated notion that their party couldn't compete with the GOP at raising soft money (large, unregulated checks that the bill theoretically eliminated), and they miscalculated. Republicans knew they could raise circles around the Dems when it came to hard money (smaller, regulated checks that the bill left in tact), and they won the lottery. So, everyone was trying to "exploit it for their own partisan purposes," in Daschle's words. The Democrats were just incompetent exploiters.



But that certainly doesn't mean Daschle's wrong about the Republicans' motives. Republicans have poured fewer resources into 527s than have Democrats, assuming that the Federal Election Commission would regulate them into oblivion or that GOP majority in Congress would eventually intervene -- as it's doing now.

It is high time that some one investigate how campaign finance reform was shoved down our throats. As for Daschle and the left, you wanted it and you have it now. Next time, be careful what you ask for, you may get it and not like it. - Sailor