Salon.com published an interesting article today titled “How to fix campaign financing forever for $50.“
To be sure, the purpose of the article leaves a lot to be desired as it advocates a public financing plan in which the government would give every citizen $50 to anonymously donate to political candidates of their choosing. (That’s just great, leave it to the folks at Salon.com to advocate a plan in which we tax the American people to fund federal campaigns.)
Anyway, if you can stomach getting past the ridiculousness of the plan, the article does make some accurate and interesting observations. Not the least of which is noting Sen. John McCain’s absence on new legislation to broaden the presidential public financing system.
The legislation is being sponsored by McCain’s old pals, Senator Russ Feingold and Representatives Christopher Shays and Martin Meehan. But no McCain — nope, the Senate’s “chief campaign finance reformer” is running for President. And, despite sponsoring similar if not identical legislation in the past, McCain seems to have abandoned his distorted campaign finance principles as he seeks to raise all the “special interest money” he can to support his bid for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination.
In fact, this go around, the article notes that McCain says he is not even familiar with Feingold’s idea. (Right — we guess Sen. McCain also has a bridge in Brooklyn to sell us real cheap!)
The article states…
“This week Sen. Russell Feingold… offered a plan that would modestly tweak the current system, increasing some public funding here and eliminating some limits there. The plan’s prospects look uncertain. His former co-conspirator in reform, John McCain, says he’s not even familiar with Feingold’s idea, perhaps because as a presidential candidate he now spends much of his time asking rich people for money.”
Feingold’s legislation should not pass. It is bad public policy. But McCain’s absence on the legislation, coupled with his refusal to ”talk straight” with the American people about whether he will campaign for the GOP nomination within the limitations of the public financing system, is very telling.
Specifically, it tells us that with his own political ambitions at stake, McCain doesn’t care to abide by speech restrictions similar to those he seeks to impose on the American people.
February 5, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Dear Sen. McCain:
There is much to admire about you and your positions on important issues. However, in my mind, the glaring exception is your willingness to muzzle political free speech in this country.
I believe that the freedom to express the opinion of individuals, groups, poor men, rich men, whoever and whatever, is so fundamentally important to the success of this republic that there should be absolutely NO attempt by government to place restrictions on that freedom. Once restrictions are accepted, it just becomes another mechanism for the party in power to manipulate the election to its advantage. I would merely require that all monetary (or in-kind) contributions be made public on an easily accessible website including an analysis of makeup of those contributions.
Your willingness to RESTRICT free speech through McCain-Feingold and any other regulatory mechanism is THE ONE and ONLY reason I believe that you are not a suitable candidate for the presidency and, therefore, I am unable to support you.