The Monkey Wrench in the Sausage Mill “If you like laws or sausages, you should never watch them being made.” … Otto von Bismarck – the Iron Chancellor
The Sausage Mill on the Hill .. In Congress, Democrats have not yet put the final blemishes on their proposal for restricting political advocacy, the Disclose Act (a clunky acronym — Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections), but already it is so awful it is excellent.
The campaign-reform community's self-inflicted disgrace with Disclose is not just in continuing to treat the First Amendment as a turkey to be carved. It also extends the blackout periods in which certain kinds of political advocacy are banned.
The increasingly opaque apparatus of political speech regulation that Democrats favor is beginning to resemble the rococo tax code. The contrast with the First Amendment's limpid simplicity would cause reformers to blush, if they were capable of embarrassment.
For all its faults, some of which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional, McCain-Feingold was at least evenhanded: It favored incumbents but did not contain provisions overtly intended to secure partisan advantage.
Democrats are rushing to enact Disclose to control this November's elections and before the Supreme Court can adjudicate its dubious constitutionality. They are betting that Republicans will be unable to get quick injunctive relief.
… George Will
House Democrats now claim to be "within striking distance" of the votes they need to sharply restrict the rights of organizations to participate in election campaigns [aka DISCLOSE] - despite a recent Supreme Court finding that such legislative restrictions are unconstitutional.
Heritage Foundation legal scholar Hans A. Von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, tells Newsmax that
the timing of the legislation indicates its true purpose is muzzling groups that otherwise might freely voice their opposition to Democratic policies in campaign ads. The Disclose Act, also known as H.R. 5175, is written so that it takes effect 30 days after passage - just in time to impact the November midterms.
"That's just crazy," Von Spakovsky tells Newsmax, "because whenever a new statute gets passed on campaign finance reform, the FEC has the job of creating the regulations needed to implement the statute.
There is just no way the FEC, which I served on for two years, could in two months come up with regulations to enforce this law."
Instead, he says, Democrats "just seem to be intent on creating a legal morass," the uncertainty of which would discourage organizations from trying to voice their views at all…
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/disclose-act-campaign-finance/2010/06/21/id/362631 Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) vilified the bill because of its ambiguity.
He said that since the Federal Election Commission won't issue regulations to implement the bill before the election,
people will have to guess at what the new election law is.
That's because the government won't be able to tell people what the law actually is... and if you guess wrong, you go to jail or get prosecuted. Harper tagged liberals for trying to rush this bill (with all of its ambiguities) for immediate implementation
so that Democrats can gag their opponents in the upcoming election. Why else, Harper asked, won't Pelosi and company delay the implementation of the bill until the 2012 elections?
The NRA throws the monkey wrench into the sausage
…………….. Perfect Timing The White House has backed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in pushing the bill.
Pelosi and Van Hollen argue the legislation is needed after the Supreme Court struck down all restrictions on corporate and union political spending last January.
The Congressional Black Caucus and moderate Blue Dog coalition have raised concerns about the bill, which caused Pelosi to cancel a Friday floor vote.
Van Hollen worked over the weekend to shore up support for the measure – made more controversial by an exemption granted to the powerful National Rifle Association and other large advocacy groups – but it’s still unclear if it will be brought up for a vote this week.
Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), as well as some Senate Democrats, have also expressed opposition…
A high-profile effort by President Obama and top Democrats to clamp down on special-interest spending in elections has faltered, nearly six months after a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for unlimited corporate and union spending on independent campaign ads…
Furor erupted last week after the bill's authors exempted the powerful National Rifle Association and other groups with membership of more than 1 million or [sic] that rely on corporations for less than 15% of contributions from the disclosure requirements.
The bill has since been changed to exempt groups with membership of more than 500,000…
The NRA, which has lobbied aggressively against the bill, remains opposed, despite the exemption. "All restriction on political speech is repugnant," Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the gun owners' group, told USA TODAY. "Am I happy that the NRA's tongue is not cut for the 2010 ... elections?
Absolutely," he said.
"Do we still think this bill is unconstitutional? Absolutely." …
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2010-06-21-campaign-spending-legislation_N.htm
Hammering from Right … and … Left:The House Dem campaign finance proposal is taking a hammering from right and left, but Dem leaders aren't backing down in their push to get it done - and are advising rank and file Dems to sell it hard in their districts over the recess. In an internal talking points memo being distributed among House Dems, the leadership lays out a set of arguments for Dems to take home to voters, arguing that the DISCLOSE act, which is a response to Citizens United, "does more to strengthen disclosure and transparency than any measure in recent history."
The memo is worth a read because it suggests how Dems are hoping to use the argument over the DISCLOSE act to recapture the reform mantle, casting Dems as the scourge of big banks, corporations and other special interests that are fighting to allow corporate money to continue holding sway over our elections through shadow groups…
The DISCLOSE act is also under fire from some liberals in Congress who are angry about the "carve-out" for the NRA, and its prospects for passing are looking less certain than they once did.
So the memo is an effort by the Dem leadership to get Dems back in line by underscoring that it represents an opportunity for real reform that mustn't be squandered…
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/06/under_fire_dem_leadership_stan.html PrologueThe NRA and the sausage mill on the hill:
Hopefully, everyone in the sausage mill on the hill is so polarized, fragmented, shell shocked, dis-organized, and ... getting Hammered from both the Right … and … the Left;
that nothing will get passed this session … before ….
the elections.
