On today’s BradCast…Jeb Bush makes it official! (But don’t notice his brother!) Who could have guessed he’d run, after spending so many months violating federal campaign finance laws? And Hillary launches her campaign with a rally on Roosevelt Island in NY, promising to support a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and “end the flow of secret, unaccountable money distorting our elections”.
Public Citizen’s Craig Holman joins us to discuss all of the above and how “we are now being besieged — in the last election it was $300 million — by dark money. Money that influences our elections, but we have no idea where it came from.”
More specifically, Holman discusses how Republicans on the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) continue to block any and all enforcement of existing campaign finance law, as seen in the organization’s ongoing lawsuit attempting to hold Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS accountable for campaign finance violations from as long ago as 2010!
“Just as big of a problem, when it comes to enforcing our campaign finance laws, is the Federal Elections Commission,” Holman says, while explaining again how the FEC has become purposely paralyzed by its three Republican commissioners who flatly refuse to enforce existing statutes. “When [the FEC] cannot act and when it cannot make a decision, we literally have no cop on the beat when it comes to money in politics.”
His use of the word “literally” there, is literally correct, for a change. That’s right, even without the Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens United decision — even if it eventually gets overturned somehow — unless the courts or the DoJ step in to take control of the matter (which, he explains, they actually can!), the GOP and their operatives on the FEC will allow campaigns to get away with campaign finance murder during yet another Presidential election. Listen to today’s show for much more on this. But, yes, Citizens United ain’t the half of it…
I wish people would drop this pipe dream of an amendment reversing Citizens United. With 31 legislatures solidly Republican and only 8 controlled by Democrats, such an amendment has all the chances of a snowflake in Death Valley.
I don’t wish they’d drop it at all. This is the process. It ain’t easy, it’ll take a while (if ever), but it’s the right thing to do. And, as Republicans may control a bunch of legislatures now, that won’t always be the case anymore than it was always the case that Democrats controlled them before Republicans took over!
Not good news to hear the FCC has been stacked with people who will do what they can to make their own public watchdog organization ineffective.
If I had to come up with a list of things I thought would help our country, putting Karl Rove in solitary confinement would be near the top of that list. But it looks like he’s going to have free reign over our elections, once again, and nobody cares.
Just to be clear, Larry. We’re talking FEC in the show above, not FCC.
While the FCC has it’s share of wingnut commissioners, unlike the FEC, it is not built as a 3R to 3D commission allowing one party to block another simply with a tie vote.
Oh man, I really did that didn’t I Brad? I actually know the difference between the two agencies, but I guess I’ve got the FCC on my brain because the congress is voting on whether to take away the FCC’s ability to enforce it’s own regulations concerning the “net neutrality” decision it made, which EVERYBODY loved. That vote is happening today. 🙁
Well, they did it. I do not like the looks of this!
From freepress: