SwiftVets.com

[Tanya]

"The FEC could have called a halt to this last year," Feingold said of unregulated 527 groups, "but it dropped the ball." McCain called the FEC "feckless" for letting groups such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (which ran ads against Democrat John Kerry) and MoveOn.Org (which ran ads against President Bush) try to swing the 2004 election.'

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/11084918.htm

[Barbie2004]

Would it be possible for you to post pertinent parts, including the date & author, of the article here??

The registration is toooooooooo detailed.

Thanks.

edit: In particular, I would like to know exactly what this "protector of our First Amendment Rights & Constitution" is proposing!

[Tanya]

Sorry I didn't have to register when I clicked on the link.

But there is information here:

http://reforminstitute.org/cgi-data/article/files/302.shtml

[Barbie2004]

Thank you very much Tanya!

BTW: This "Reform Institute" is a front group for McCain to "exempt" himself from McCain-Feingold and channel (read "launder money") contributions. Read more about this sham here:

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004010.php#trackbacks

more here:

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004025.php#comments

If either of these don't work, go to Captain's frontpage and scroll down, he has much good information on this:

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

I'll be back later once I have had a chance to digest this.

Thanks again!

[Tanya]

This is last months news Barbie2004 and thank you for the links above

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/politics/10840364.htm

Posted on Mon, Feb. 07, 2005

"Lott supports changes to law governing 527 advocacy groups"

"By ELANA SCHOR Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)"

"WASHINGTON - Though their announcement was serious - the introduction of a strict new campaign finance reform bill - the congressmen couldn't stop cracking smiles. Sen. Trent Lott was knockin' 'em dead.

"Punxsutawney Phil came out this morning and saw his shadow," Lott said. "Well, I saw a lot of shadow in these 527s."

Unregulated by the Federal Election Commission and unburdened by taxpaying, 527s are advocacy groups engaged in political activity named for the section of the tax code under which they were formed.

The 527s took advantage of a legal loophole to lavish more than $400 million on the last presidential election, numbing voters with an onslaught of TV issue ads.

Lott's vocal support this week of the 527 Reform Act took many in Washington by surprise, not least because he opposed the 2002 law written by the same smiling congressmen.

"Nothing quite makes sense," said Steven Weiss, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit campaign finance watchdog. "There is no one solid reason we know of that Republicans, and Lott in particular, are in support of regulating 527s."

Republicans and Democrats have taken turns condemning 527 groups after both parties were burned by 527s striking against their candidates. Lott spoke of his growing concern about the integrity of 527s since the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law passed in 2002, the first curb on political giving in more than 30 years.

"This is what I was afraid was happening," Lott said. "It was an unintended consequence of McCain-Feingold. Instead of going to the parties, rich people are putting money into these 527s in the dark of night."

"It's the worst case of sewer money."

The 527s are allowed to engage in political activity while keeping their nonpartisan status, as long as they do not use language explicitly encouraging any one candidate's election or defeat. The 527 Reform Act that Lott is co-sponsoring would require the groups to register with the FEC as political committees and finance their advertising solely with "hard money," direct individual donations subject to strict limits.

"Soft money," limitless contributions that do not fall under FEC oversight, has long been 527 groups' bread and butter. The new bill would only allow 527s promoting both federal and state candidates to use soft money, and for no more than 50 percent of their activities. Those operating solely at the federal level would fall under FEC rules.

"There is a legitimate public interest here," said Aron Pilhofer, a writer at the Center for Public Integrity who published a detailed study of 527s last year. Pilhofer cited as an example George Soros, a European billionaire who spread his giving so widely to anti-Bush 527s that even he was hard-pressed to come up with a total.

As troubled as average Americans should be by 527 groups' lack of transparency, Pilhofer said, politicians are "quaking in their boots."

"They don't want to be on the receiving end" of a negative 527 ad, Pilhofer said.

President Bush spoke against 527s during his re-election campaign, when one of his senior counselors agreed to resign after acknowledging associations with an anti-Kerry 527 group. 527 spending also scared Arizona Sen. John McCain, co-author of the 2002 reform law.

McCain was among Lott's smiling co-sponsors at their bill's introduction, yet the two men rarely have been on the same side of battles. In a Republican party ruled by loyalty, McCain is known as an outspoken maverick while Lott is still considered a traditionalist.

Though Punxsutawney Phil may have seen his shadow this week, the world was seeing a new side of Trent Lott.

"One of the things you see Lott doing now, since he's no longer majority leader, is exercising his freedom to do the things he really believes in," said Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University.

Wiseman said the "really invigorated Lott" was taking his own steps to "move up the ladder a little bit and become an elder statesman of the GOP."

Other Washington observers have been taking notice of Lott's new nature this session. He's somehow looser, they say. "Cutting his own trail," Wiseman called it.

The 527 Reform Act will soon join Lott's trail, as hearings on the bill are set for March 8 in the Rules Committee, which he chairs. Lott said he expects a swift consideration of the bill, and the often-contentious House leadership has already signaled its openness to considering 527 legislation.

"It's not just Democrats or Republicans" hurt by 527 groups, Lott said. "It's been used by both parties and it's going to be abused by both parties." And even his Democratic co-sponsors heralded Lott's presence.

"A very significant addition to our efforts," said Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold.

"Lott's getting pretty good with the lines," remarked New York Sen. Charles Schumer"