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SwanLady
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 95
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 Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 6:42 am Post subject: Crying Foul? |
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How can the Kerry campaign accuse Bush of sponsoring or even being linked to the Swifties in light of:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/07/kerry.exley/
| Quote: | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John Kerry has hired an Internet-savvy Democrat to run his presidential campaign's online communications, a move that raises new questions about the link between his campaign and the independent groups that run TV ads on his behalf.
Zach Exley, the director of special projects for the MoveOn PAC, is going to the Kerry campaign to become its director of online communications and organization.
Exley also worked during the Democratic presidential primary for Howard Dean, helping Dean set up his web-based organization.
Since Kerry became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in early March, the MoveOn PAC has spent more than $2.5 million on TV ads that attack President Bush.
But under the new campaign-finance law, those efforts cannot be coordinated with the Kerry campaign.
A MoveOn statement said Exley and the staff of all MoveOn entities have agreed that they will not be in contact through the election period to avoid the appearance of coordination, "even though federal election rules permit some forms of communication."
MoveOn has spent roughly $17 million on ads since it started running its "misleader" campaign against Bush last year.
Republicans said Exley's move reinforces their accusations that Kerry and his Democratic allies are circumventing the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law they fought so hard to enact. (GOP challenges anti-Bush ads)
"It's another example of the coordination between MoveOn.org and the Kerry campaign that is illegal under campaign finance law," a Bush campaign official said.
"The Media Fund and MoveOn are functioning as Kerry's slush fund, a shadow Democratic Party that's illegally using soft dollars."
MoveOn became the subject of controversy early this year when it posted two ads on its Web site that compared Bush to Adolf Hitler. The ads were submitted to the group as part of a contest to produce anti-Bush commercials, and Republican Chairman Ed Gillespie said Exley dismissed Republican complaints about them with a barnyard expletive.
"In addition to the obvious questions his hiring raises about further illegal coordination between the Kerry campaign and MoveOn.org, you have to wonder what hiring someone who considers Hitler comparisons to be legitimate political discourse says about the Kerry campaign," Gillespie said in a statement issued Wednesday. |
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SwanLady
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 6:51 am Post subject: |
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And another interesting thing about moveon.org:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/25/MNGI56ASTQ1.DTL
| Quote: | When it was launched in 1998, the political grassroots group MoveOn. org, based in the Bay Area, decried a presidential election system dominated by big money and pledged to "bring ordinary people back into politics."
But now, as the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and other groups like it emerge as major forces in the presidential election, a large amount of their financial support is coming from sources that are anything but ordinary, and the money is big indeed.
A review of the MoveOn.org fund's first-quarter fund raising shows that nearly half of its $6.98 million came from just two people: Peter Lewis, the chairman of Progressive Corp., a Cleveland insurer, who gave $2 million, and George Soros, the New York fund manager, who gave just over $1 million.
MoveOn directors say the group very much remains a grassroots organization, and they assert that the average donation from their 160,000 supporters is about $60. They make no apologies for their large contributors and say the money actually helped them raise twice as much in small donations.
"We think it's appropriate, because it levels the playing field," said Wes Boyd, the president of the fund. "We are dogged opponents of the Bush administration, because of the issues, because of the policy."
In a presidential election year where as much as $500 million could be spent trying to affect the outcome, MoveOn's Voter Fund and other similar left- leaning nonprofits are taking on a high-stakes role: spending tens of millions of dollars for television campaign advertisements in battleground states, sending political pamphlets to voters' mailboxes and paying for voter registration drives.
Although the law bars this new breed of political organization from directly calling for the defeat of President Bush, MoveOn has used its money to air advertisements strongly critical of his record.
The goal of MoveOn and other groups is to even out the imbalance between the financial resources of Bush's re-election campaign and that of the likely Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Though Kerry raised $59 million in the first quarter to Bush's $53 million, Bush has far more cash on hand: $108 million, compared with Kerry's $32.2 million. (Both candidates spent heavily on television advertising in March.)
Despite their success in raising money, these grassroots groups are facing legal, regulatory and legislative challenges. Critics in Republican campaign finance reform circles say they are violating the spirit, if not the letter, of newly enacted laws intended to curb the presence of large unregulated donations in the federal election system.
The new law, called the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, bars politicians and political parties from raising large, unregulated donations that in the past skirted contribution limits and were used for "issue" ads -- often thinly veiled advertisements for candidates. The changes were demanded after evidence emerged that access to candidates was being exchanged for the money.
But at least some of those large donations are now flowing to the nonprofit groups. In fact, the Hill, a Washington political newspaper, reported last week that when the groups' first-quarter fund-raising totals are added to the money raised by Kerry's campaign, the combined amount was twice as much as the money raised by Bush-Cheney '04.
The groups are receiving thousands of donations that fit the traditional notion of a grassroots group, with some contributions as small as $10. But they are also receiving six- and seven-figure donations from wealthy individuals, corporations, unions and partisan governors associations.
"(The law) was intended to break the political parties and federal candidates away from soft money," said Larry Noble, the executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "So far, from what we can see, it's done that. The money is not going directly to the political parties. However, there is a concern that it is getting back into the system through these groups."
According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, two of the top 10 soft-money contributors in the 2002 election -- Steven Bing, a Hollywood producer, and Fred Eychaner, owner of Chicago media conglomerate Newsweb Corp. -- are now among the top 10 donors to nonprofit political groups.
Bing has given $5 million so far this year to the Joint Victory Campaign 2004, which in turn gives the money to two other groups, the Media Fund -- run by Harold Ickes, deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House -- and a fund called America Coming Together.
The Bush-Cheney campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last month alleging that the groups were violating campaign laws.
"John Kerry has become the largest beneficiary of illegal soft money from wealthy special interests since the campaign reforms of the Watergate era," said Tracey Schmitt, a Bush-Cheney campaign spokeswoman. "These groups are defiantly breaking the law and doing so with the intent of influencing a federal election only months away."
MoveOn officials say the large donations are within the law and demonstrate that campaign finance reforms have worked, because that money is no longer going directly to candidates or parties who are offering access or influence in exchange for it.
"Access was the core of those transactions.'' said Boyd of the Voter Fund. "We don't offer that. We can't offer that."
Still, MoveOn announced last week that it was launching a new fund- raising drive, using a new political action committee in place of the nonprofit organization. As a PAC, the group will have more freedom to directly advocate the election of Kerry and the defeat of Bush, among other things. But it will not be allowed to accept donations larger than $5,000 per individual.
"People were getting the perception that this was a group bankrolled by very wealthy individuals," said Derek Willis, the co-author of a Center for Public Integrity report on the new breed of political advocacy groups. "No matter how many people they tout saying, 'We have X many donors,' or 'The average donation is $30,' there is still a stigma to a group that you can largely peg as being mostly funded by one or two wealthy people. It leaves an easy avenue of attack for the other side. While the money spent may benefit the Kerry campaign, it also has some baggage to it."
Peter Schurman, the executive director of MoveOn.org, said criticism of the large donors was "not really a consideration" in its transition to the more regulated political action committee. He added: "The PAC's objective is to elect Kerry and defeat Bush." |
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SwanLady
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:04 am Post subject: |
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Well and then theres:
| Quote: | | The Kerry campaign will spend $500,000 to air the ads, something that it had not planned to do. It was hoping to preserve funds by not running ads until the end of the month. The liberal 527 group MoveOn.org filled the gap during the past two weeks, running ads that revived their accusations that Bush didn't fulfill his obligation to the Air Guard and demanded that the president take down the Swift Boat ad. Campaign finance laws prohibit coordination between campaigns and 527 groups. |
http://www.gopusa.com/news/2004/august/0820_kerry_fires_swifties.shtml
Now, if I recall right, Moveon.org ran anti-Bush ads before Kerry was even nominated, and with the endorsement (apparently) of the DNC. Kerry has said not word ONE til now when something he deems a REAL threat shows up. But why is he surprised? He and O'Neill have known about one another since the 1970's. But O'Neill has remained silent for many years, as have the others, mostly because Kerry wasn't running for Commander and Chief. Now he is. Did he expect them to roll over and play dead?
Im becoming more and more convinced that John Kerry is a bonafide, "dianostic", Nariccisist! |
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SwanLady
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:51 am Post subject: |
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It would seem that the Kerry campaign is a little less than forthcoming. Of course, they're trying to link Perry and the Swifties directly to Bush. The way it works is this:
Perry, a wealthy Houstonian, donated 100,000 to help our swifties get their group off and running. Perry has also donated moneys to the RNC for Bush's reelection. Kerry, et al, cry foul. This is a violation!
Well, maybe the Kerry campaign better look at the beam in their own eye before trying to extract the one out of the Bush campaign's eye.
The name that comes to mind immediately is JARED POLIS.
Polis, an ardent democrat, made $800 million dollars selling his parent's online greeting card company before the dot com crash. Since then, he has started a high-tech related foundation called the Polis Foundation and is presently on the State School Board for Colorado.
According to a report in the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, Polis donated $37,000 to the Kerry campaign (Rocky Mountain News, Apr. 26, 2004). Okay, that's fine. He can do that, right? AS LONG AS HE DOESN'T GIVE TO ANY SOFT MONEY GROUPS as well. At least, that's how the Kerry campaign is reading this.
OOPS!
According to IRS, Polis has pulled a Perry! He likewise donated (get this) some $200,000 to MOVEON.ORG.
So let's make it clear:
Perry donated money to Bush's reelection and to the Swifties.
Polis donated money to Kerry's election and to Moveon.org.
My my my.... If this ever got out....! |
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jwb7605
Rear Admiral
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:54 am Post subject: |
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I see he ran the Dean campaign, too.
Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll get Kerry to claim Bush is Hitler, and scream a lot. |
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Hueygunner
Lt.Jg.
Joined: 07 Aug 2004
Posts: 127
Location: Kentucky
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:29 am Post subject: Hypocrites |
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"...the Kerry campaign better look at the beam in their own eye before trying to extract the one out of the Bush campaign's eye. "
I believe the saying is "remove the beam from your own eye before trying to take out the mote in your brother's eye". The Democrates have spent millions more than the Republicans on soft-money ads yet they're screaming foul! |
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