the AP reported<\/a> after interviewing the GOP chairman yesterday, Gillespie “called on groups such as Common Cause, Democracy 21, the Alliance for Better Campaigns and Public Campaign to criticize the unregulated, third-party efforts by Soros, who said he is committed to spending $15 million, and Peter Lewis, who has earmarked $12 million, to defeat Bush.”<\/p>\n“Where are the referees?” Gillespie said. “They swallowed their whistles. They passed laws to prevent this kind of thing.”<\/p>\n
This is a cute tactic, allowing Gillespie to appear concerned about the role of money in campaigns, but it’s also ridiculous.
\n
\nFirst, there’s nothing illegal or improper about Soros investing his own money in pro-Dem causes. Campaign finance laws now prohibit donors from contributing direct donations to parties in the form of “soft money,” but those same laws allow donors to give unlimited amounts to independent private organizations, which is exactly what Soros is doing.<\/p>\n
Second, the hypocrisy is breathtaking. No group in America has enjoyed more financial support from fat-cat donors than the Republican National Committee. Bankrolled by millionaires like Richard Mellon Scaife, the GOP has acted as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wealthy White Guys, Inc. for generations. <\/p>\n
Now Gillespie wants to whine about Soros helping the Dems? Please. Thankfully, the Democratic National Committee quickly issued a report on Gillespie’s charges, titled “Crocodile Tears,” which offered reporters a detailed run-down on all of the “independent” right-leaning political groups that have enjoyed support from conservative donors, and which do not disclose their ties to industries such as gun manufacturers, big tobacco, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hope you’re sitting down because I have mind-blowing news from Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie: the GOP is now officially concerned about the influence of wealthy donors in the political process. Gillespie’s not talking about the power the wealthy have over the Republicans, of course, he’s deeply troubled by the support financier George […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}