THE DEMOCRATS--FROM CFR TO CPR

A Campaign Reformers Should Love - But Don't: George W. Bush is raising money the way reformers wanted. (Byron York, July 7, 2003, National Review)

"It's the most cold-blooded and efficient way of raising money in the history of politics," Charles Lewis, head of the Center for Public Integrity, says in Canada's National Post. "These aren't your average Americans. They're the most well-heeled interests, with vested interests in government."

Bob Herbert of the New York Times calls Bush's fundraising dinners "events at which the fat cats throw millions of dollars at the president to reinforce their already impenetrable ring of influence around the national government."

That's the kind of rhetoric that was used when rich people and corporations gave seven-figure soft-money donations. Now, with contributors limited to $2,000, all of it hard money, the critics are still using the fat cat argument.

But by any standard of measurement, they're simply wrong. George W. Bush's GOP is the party of the little guy.

A new study by the Center for Responsive Politics found that in the last election cycle, people who gave less than $200 to politicians or parties gave 64 percent of their money to Republicans. Just 35 percent went to Democrats. On the other hand, the Center found that people who gave $1 million or more gave 92 percent to Democrats - and a whopping eight percent to Republicans.

Which would you call the party of fat cats?

The best part of all this is that it's a totally self-inflicted wound. Every analuyst worth his salt warned that Campaign Finance Reform would be a disaster for the Democrats but the hypnotic effect of their own rhetoric made it impossible for them to avoid marching off the cliff and George W. Bush--though in constitutional terms he should have--wasn't going to stop them. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 7, 2003 11:30 PM