June 5, 2011
FLIP-FLOP?
Dems sing new tune on finances: Last year, they decried the GOP's secret donors. But after last fall's thumping, they've joined the club. (Dick Polman, 6/05/11, Philadelphia Inquirer)
Last autumn, President Obama and his political allies insisted that secret donations were a "threat to democracy." On the eve of the 2010 congressional elections, key Republicans such as Karl Rove were raising and spending millions of bucks from anonymous donors, and the Democrats were crying foul. Obama said, "The American people deserve to know who's trying to sway their elections," and deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton warned that "unless a bright light is shined on the shadowy activity of these outside groups, people aren't going to know the facts."One flip-flop later, here's the deal today:
Obama's closest allies - most notably Burton, newly freed from his White House job - have created new organizations that will raise secret money. Just like Rove and his conservative friends, these Obama-allied nonprofit groups are taking advantage of a tax loophole that allows donors to pony up as much money as they want - without any requirement that these donors be publicly revealed.
In other words, the Democrats were against this "shadowy activity," this "threat to democracy," before they were for it.
Isn't the--obviously absurd--suggestion here that the Democrats, in general, and the UR, in particular, had been running on "clean" money up until just now?
Posted by oj at June 5, 2011 8:50 AM
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