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The Hill: McCain Flips on Reform Bill
Conservative activists have been screaming bloody murder about a provision in the Senate ethics bill that would require grassroots groups to report on their fundraising activities. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who previously had championed a similar measure, has heard their call and is switching his position on the matter.
So-called "grassroots" groups spend millions of unregulated dollars trying to change public opinion each year -- money that often comes not from individuals but from corporate coffers. McCain, as The Hill reports, "sponsored legislation last Congress that included an even broader requirement for grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors."
But conservative figures as powerful as Richard Viguerie and James Dobson have weighed in hard on the measure in the current bill. Viguerie is calling it "the biggest threat to free speech ever," and Dobson's Focus on the Family is circulating a petition against it.
Now, as The Hill reports, McCain, who recently said he wanted to have a "dialogue" with Dobson, "has told conservative activists that he will vote to strip a key provision on grassroots lobbying from the reform package he previously supported."
Flip. Flop.
He's such a maverick, don'cha know, bucking the party line to do what's right.
January 18, 2007 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
"The greatest threat to free speech ever" is posed by requiring that who is paying for it should be identified? That is so ironic on several levels.
It really is a sad statement about our public discourse that Viguerie would think he can advance his interests by saying something like this; in a rational world, that would be devastating to his reputation across the political spectrum.
January 18, 2007 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Especially when juxtaposed with the even-more severe restrictions on other advocacy groups'- such as labor unions- use of dues.
January 18, 2007 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
none
January 18, 2007 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wtf?!? This issue was his main whining point when he ran against Bush in 2000! I used to strongly disagree with him on so many issues but respect him for his support of this bill, now he's shown his true colors.
January 18, 2007 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am a life-long Democrat but stood staunchly by McCain for years. I waved off his apparently choosing to ignore the "illegitimate black daughter" pre-swiftboating of the 2000 election, the Bush hug and the Bush kiss on his pate. The speech at Liberty College did it. And things have really gone down-hill since. McCain's waffle on what torture was acceptable and what was not did it.
I just read the article in a recent Vanity Fair that explains a lot. In his focussed quest for the presidency McCain has given up all claim to his Straight Talker pose. He was a true hero in Viet Nam but he has morphed into what he once despised. By frantically and brazenly wooing the Religious Right he has lost all the moral ground he once held. All I see now is a former hero, health and mind broken by age and suffering, clinging desperately to the hope of becoming president. Duke Cunningham, another fallen hero, would understand it all. I don't.
January 18, 2007 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think y'all have thought through the First Amendment implications of this. We have the right to anonymous speech in this country and the government has no right to know which grassroots causes I support - right, left, center, or whatever their position may be.
I'm no fan of McCain, but in this case he is right. Even the ACLU agrees:
ACLU Supports Bennett Amendment to S 1
In a letter to Sentor Robert Bennett (R-UT), the Director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, Caroline Fredrickson, and Marvin Johnson, the ACLU Legislative Council, strongly support Amendment 20, to remove Section 220, the restrictions on grassroots communications, from S 1, the lobby reform bill.
They wrote, "Section 220...imposes onerous reporting requirements that will chill constitutionally protected activity."
January 18, 2007 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I fail to see how these reporting requirements are anymore onerous than the reporting requirements that are already in place. And I respectfully disagree that this activity is anymore protected by the 1st Amendment than any of the other activities that require reporting. Obviously for some "grass roots" organization to fail to reveal its actual roots brings it in conflict with truth in advertising laws and should be prosecuted on that basis if nothing else.
January 18, 2007 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am shocked....! But then again if you read about McCains part in the Keating 5 scandal..it wouldn't be so shocking....I wonder what skeletons rattle around in Viguerie and Dobsons closet....? (before they were saved and got religion to sell...)
January 18, 2007 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Language in the bill needs to be strengthened for clarification, hence so much confusion and existing scare tactics. In The Hill article, it mentions that the reason McCain is "flip flopping" on his position is to gain the support of conservative groups. However, the provision would probably not be burdensome for the groups he cares about. The intent of the bill is to limit the impact to big dollar advertising and lobby firms. See here for more information.
January 18, 2007 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, but in a time when we can be 'disappeared' upon an executive finding that I have "ties" to "terrorists", I don't want a "right" Administration from knowing which "liberal" groups I give to, and I don't want a "left" Administration to know which "center right" groups I give to. Heck, Buzzflash, TPMMuckraker, or any other donation driven web site could be construed as a grassroots organization. Do you really want the Tom Delays of this world to know all of your political donation patterns?
January 18, 2007 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain is suffering from an ambition induced malady. Political sycophancy at it worst. The loss of my respect for him matches the loss of principles this politician so embarrasingly exhibits with each passing day. One thing for sure, he would make a great Shakespeareon character.
January 20, 2007 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
c700t
September 30, 2007 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink