Ed Wood "The Right Stuff" Published March 6, 2002

Confidence in government

There are those within the Washington Beltway who bemoan the fact that the voting public seems to have lost confidence in the integrity of our government officials. And they blame this lack of public confidence on such things as the Internet, talk radio, and especially the likes of Rush Limbaugh. Well, honorable sirs (and madams), you need look no farther than your own doorsteps.

As we all know, Enron has breathed new life into the Congressional effort to pass some sort of campaign finance reform, even though the reform now being proposed would have done nothing to prevent the Enron scandal. At the moment, the "Shays-Meehan" version of such legislation has passed the House of Representatives, and is working its way through the Senate (where, incidentally, it has the support of U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-TN).

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul has stated, "Campaign finance laws will not make politicians more ethical, but will make it harder for average Americans to influence Washington." He is right, of course, but just to make sure, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-MO, has already announced his plan to circumvent the bill's proposed ban on soft money contributions (like those donated by Enron) even before the bill is enacted into law!

It seems that Reps. Shays and Meehan sort of left a little loophole in their proposed law.

Although businesses and other organizations will be banned from donating to political campaigns, especially to those who might challenge the incumbents, those officials already in office can raise money in $20,000 increments, and donate it back to political action groups, so long as those groups are "non-partisan." They, in turn, will use the money in support of their special interests, as usual.

Rep. Gephardt has already assured the African-American members of his caucus that one such "non-partisan" group to qualify for such donations will be the National Association for the Advancement or Colored People (NAACP). Others so identified are the Southwest Voter Project, which pays for get-out-the-vote campaigns among Hispanics, the ACLU, the AFL-CIO, and other such "non-partisan" organizations.

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-FL - you will recall that Rep. Hastings is one of the few federal judges ever impeached for malfeasance in office - has said, "I will formulate voter education and registration projects that would be funded by people like myself. We can go to all the people that we know. There's no limit on non-profit organizations. The Democrat Party has to do that as well."

So there you have it. At least they could have waited until the bill was signed before revealing their plan to corrupt it. And they blame our lack of confidence on talk radio!

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Ed Wood is a resident of Sparta, TN. His column is published each Wednesday in the Crossville Chronicle.