August 26, 2004
IF ONLY HE'D USE HIS GENIUS FOR GOOD
Bush to Urge Court to End Independent Political Ads (Update1) (Bloomberg, 8/26/04)
President George W. Bush plans to seek a court order to force the U.S. Federal Election Commission to stop all political advertising by independent groups, said spokesman Scott McClellan.In one move, the Bush campaign puts John Kerry, the establishment media and John McCain in an impossible situation. This is politically brilliant and yet terrible. We here at BrothersJudd give the President lots of room to stray from the conservative path, either because of the realities of mainstream politics or to achieve some greater goal. This time, though, he strays too far. We can't even say, as we did (wrongly) when it came to CFR, that filing suit is just for show, because the courts will never go for it. Who knows what the courts will do? If only some basic rules were written done somewhere so everyone could refer to them when they have questions like this.Bush asked Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, to help end advertising by political organizations known as 527 groups, named for the section of the Internal Revenue Service code that grants them tax-exempt status. McCain told the New York Times he disapproves of ads attacking Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, one of the 527 groups.
More (Via The Note):
McCAIN REAX: "I enthusiastically applaud President Bush's commitment to ensuring that 527s operate under the same funding rules that apply to federal candidates and parties. I look forward to working with the President, both in the courts and through legislation, to force the Federal Election Commission to regulate 527s, as they are already required by the law and affirmed by the Supreme Court, to do," said McCain in a statement.Posted by David Cohen at August 26, 2004 12:44 PMKERRY TO TAKE DOWN McCAIN AD: "We respect John McCain's wishes, and will stop running the ads of him challenging Bush to denounce the attacks on his service. It's long past time that George Bush also take John McCain's advice and do the right thing by putting an end to the smears and lies attacking John Kerry's military service. George Bush needs to say this is wrong, he needs to say it must end," said Kerry spokesperson David Wade.
I agree with OJ. But the amazing thing about all this is the example 527 usually cited is the Swift Boats while the Dem 527s (moveon, etc) aren't mentioned at all.
Posted by: AWW at August 26, 2004 1:01 PMIf the network news broadcasts don't make a profit, does that mean they're 3rd party ads and we ban them too? If that's the case I might reconsider my position on this...
Posted by: mike earl at August 26, 2004 1:32 PMOn a related note - I had a mixed view of McCain -respecting his service but disagreeing with some of his policies. This episode hasn't put McCain in a good light. McCain must know about the Dem 527s but hasn't said a word. But when the Swift vets show up, saying the same things McCain said earlier, he jumps all over them and Bush, giving the Dems ammunition against Bush. We hear that he is still bitter over 2000 but that doesn't justify his recent anti-Bush behavior.
Posted by: AWW at August 26, 2004 1:42 PMThe Dems are far more heavily reliant on the 527s than the Republicans. By condemning the Swifties with such visciousness, they've given their opponents an opening for taking some of their main assets out of play.
I know, I know, first amendment, free speech and all, on principle I should be against this. Thing is, this Schadenfreude stuff is fun!
Posted by: Mike Morley at August 26, 2004 1:48 PMThis is one of those "Laws of Unintended Cosequences" situations, just as McCain-Feingold produced the 527s and the original 1974 campaign reform law resulted in McCain-Feingold.
It obviously was just too tempting for the Bush campaign not to take this hanging change-up from the Kerry camp and slam it right back at them, but by doing it Bush does commit himself to a new round of campaign reforms if he's re-elected (the positive spin would be if Congress keeps doing reform after reform closer and closer together, only to see the lawyers and politicians quickly find loopholes, the public may get tired of the whole charade and push for passage of a simple "full disclosure" campaign finance law).
Posted by: John at August 26, 2004 2:03 PMOnce you slap the Tar Baby the first time, consequences flow.
Anyhow, what's the sppropriate amount of money that should be spent informing voters?
I believe it works out to less than $2/voter.
Is the right figure 10 cents?
Shouldn't we be willing to spend a lot of money on the central act of self-government?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 26, 2004 2:30 PMJohn:
I wonder if that's not the plan all along--arrange for McCain-Feingold to crash and burn
(hopefully on top of Kerry's pointed head) so we can sweep the whole silly edifice away in favor of full disclosure.
W is one of the better chess players. He's always four moves ahead of the opposition.
Posted by: Mike Morley at August 26, 2004 2:42 PMI'm very confused about the "Kerry to take down McCain ad" note. Did McCain ask them to do so? If so, why wasn't that news?
Posted by: brian at August 26, 2004 6:04 PMBrian:
The media will not publicize anything where McCain is critical of Kerry. Imagine what would happen if McCain simply stated in his speech in NY next week that Kerry hurt and dishonored the American military (and the POWs) with his anti-war activities (while still in the Naval Reserve).
Kerry would be lucky to keep 38% of the vote. And Dan, Peter, and Tom might start asking about John McCain's illegitimate children.
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 26, 2004 11:13 PM