Eutrusca
24-08-2005, 17:20
COMMENTARY: Ok ... the Gov. of California wants to remove redistricting from politics. Great! But a number of California congresspeople don't want that to happen because they're desperately scared of losing their seats. Understandable. But then these congresspeople violate their own guidelines so they can keep their influence. Not kewl!
Channeling Money Westward (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/opinion/24wed3.html?th&emc=th)
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Published: August 24, 2005
Congress had the courage three years ago to take itself out of the corrupting game of soliciting "soft money" from powerful donors invested in quid pro quo politics. But an exception to the rules is ever a part of the game in Washington, and now the Federal Election Commission - supposed to be the enforcer for campaign ethics - has customized an egregious loophole. House members from California can now pour money into the state's ballot initiative fight this November.
Naked self-interest is driving this bipartisan end run, for the ballot includes Proposition 77, an initiative backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would strip the State Legislature and its party brokers of the responsibility for redrawing federal and state election districts. Officeholders in both parties are quivering at the thought that some of them might be redrawn out of sinecures by the panel of retired judges the governor is proposing.
The lawmakers' argument - that their rights as Californians, not incumbents, were their main concern - was not credible. But insider lobbying by House members, including the Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, successfully arm-twisted the F.E.C.'s handpicked party stalwarts, who could not even come up with an election-law rationale for contradicting precedent. To circumvent the clear ban on soft-money wheedling by members of Congress, the commission had to overrule its own general counsel's reading of federal law.
The loophole is shameless and, in the words of Senator Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat and a co-author of the soft-money ban, "simply incomprehensible."
Channeling Money Westward (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/opinion/24wed3.html?th&emc=th)
Printer-Friendly
Published: August 24, 2005
Congress had the courage three years ago to take itself out of the corrupting game of soliciting "soft money" from powerful donors invested in quid pro quo politics. But an exception to the rules is ever a part of the game in Washington, and now the Federal Election Commission - supposed to be the enforcer for campaign ethics - has customized an egregious loophole. House members from California can now pour money into the state's ballot initiative fight this November.
Naked self-interest is driving this bipartisan end run, for the ballot includes Proposition 77, an initiative backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would strip the State Legislature and its party brokers of the responsibility for redrawing federal and state election districts. Officeholders in both parties are quivering at the thought that some of them might be redrawn out of sinecures by the panel of retired judges the governor is proposing.
The lawmakers' argument - that their rights as Californians, not incumbents, were their main concern - was not credible. But insider lobbying by House members, including the Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, successfully arm-twisted the F.E.C.'s handpicked party stalwarts, who could not even come up with an election-law rationale for contradicting precedent. To circumvent the clear ban on soft-money wheedling by members of Congress, the commission had to overrule its own general counsel's reading of federal law.
The loophole is shameless and, in the words of Senator Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat and a co-author of the soft-money ban, "simply incomprehensible."