New republican leader in the Senate waged a high-profile battle against campaign finance reform

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from a Washington Monthly article, Oct, 1997 by Michelle Cottle

Why Mitch McConnell should know better - campaign fund corruption in his home state of Kentucky

Forget everything you think you know about money in politics. The system is not broken. Sure, a few loopholes need to be closed to prevent violation of existing election laws (e.g., foreign money should not be financing U.S. political campaigns), but the current elections system and the level of money involved are not harming our democratic process. At least, such is the world according to Sen. Mitch McConnell, aka "the Darth Vader of campaign finance reform."

A firm believer in the Supreme Court's ruling that, in this country, money equals speech and must be protected as such, the junior senator from Kentucky has appointed himself protector-in-chief of the current fund-raising system. He argues that, if anything, Congress should raise the existing contribution limits to get even more "speech" into the election process. Pooh-poohing concerns over the outrageous amount already spent on campaigns, McConnell has, at various times, compared election spending to the price of yogurt, bubble gum, and McDonald's extra value meals. As for the undue influence such contributions provide special interest groups, Senator McConnell insists that legislators are above contamination by financial matters. As he told the National Press Club in March, "I think it is absurd on its face to make the suggestion that members are selling votes given the fact that the Supreme Court sanctioned limits on individual contributions and limits on PAC contributions" In other words, no self-respecting legislator would sell his or her soul for a measly $5,000 PAC donation. For what dollar amount a legislator might consider selling his soul, McConnell does not say.)

Self-righteously cloaked in the First Amendment, McConnell has waged a high-profile battle against campaign finance reform. But unlike many of his colleagues, he is neither embarrassed nor apologetic about his commitment to the status quo. After leading a filibuster in the 103rd Congress against legislation advocating voluntary spending limits, public financing which he disparages as "food stamps for politicians"), and lower limits on PAC contributions, McConnell declared the bill's failure "a victory for the Constitution." The proposed measure was, he said, "the kind of bill that gives gridlock a good name" Last year, with his party in the congressional driver's seat, McConnell had even less trouble killing reforms championed by Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold. And as this year's Senate hearings on Bill and Al's campaign shenanigans goaded some 70 legislators into introducing their own reform bills, McConnell has amassed an unlikely cadre of anti-reform interests, ranging from the ACLU to the Christian Coalition, to lobby against any effort to slow the flow of money into the system. Not that McConnell has much to fear. As head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (i.e., the guy in charge of fund-raising), McConnell is unlikely to be crossed on this issue by any GOP senator looking to be in his good graces come re-election time -- a fact of which McConnell is well aware. In February, National Journal reported that McConnell had already summoned several of the Republican senators facing re-election this November to his office for a chat about his desire to block McCain-Feingold again this session.


http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n10_v29/ai_19898066



"McConnell has called campaign finance reform "the most aggressive attack on free speech since the Alien and Sedition acts"

The New Republic
Speak Easy
by Peter Beinart
03.04.02

The first reason to doubt that congressional opponents of campaign finance
reform are motivated by devotion to free speech is that they haven't shown
themselves particularly devoted to it on other issues. McConnell has called
campaign finance reform "the most aggressive attack on free speech since
the Alien and Sedition acts" (there's that hyperbole again), but he backed the
1995 Communications Decency Act, which banned obscenity on the
Internet (until the Supreme Court struck it down for violating the First
Amendment). McConnell himself introduced the Pornography Victim's
Compensation Act, a Catharine MacKinnon-esque bill that would have
allowed the victims of sex crimes to sue the pornographers who had inspired
their attackers. And he was the prime mover behind a 1999 amendment to
prevent movies and TV shows that display "wanton and gratuitous violence"
from using federal land or equipment.

When confronted with this contradiction, McConnell usually replies that
porn and violent movies don't constitute political speech and, therefore,
don't deserve as much First Amendment protection as do campaign
donations. But McConnell also backed a 1995 effort to restrict the political
activities of groups that receive federal grants. And while McConnell, to his
credit, opposed a constitutional amendment to outlaw burning the flag,
virtually every other prominent campaign finance reform opponent in
Congress--Trent Lott, Don Nickles, Dick Armey, Tom DeLay--voted to
throw free speech out the window.

http://www.biology.eku.edu/KOS/mcconnell_financereform.html



The `Darth Vader' of campaign finance reform

Mitch McConnell's stands aren't always popular, but he doesn't really mind

By Angie Cannon

5/19/03

For 15 years, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has tried like heck to kill campaign finance reform, and he's not about to give up now. Last spring, when President Bush signed the McCain-Feingold law limiting the unregulated political contributions known as "soft money," McConnell led the broad coalition that sued to overturn it. And when a three-judge federal panel issued a mixed verdict on the law earlier this month, McConnell was the first to file a brief appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, which by law must take the case. When the court rules, perhaps later this year, McConnell will be at the center of one of the most important political-speech cases in a generation.

McConnell is also returning to center stage in the fractious U.S. Senate, as he recovers from successful triple heart bypass surgery February 3. His position as GOP whip makes him in effect the Senate's No. 2 Republican, a lieutenant to new Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. But Frist's rocky start is increasing the pressure on McConnell and putting his insider's legislative skills to the test. Frist has had trouble persuading moderate GOP senators to back President Bush's tax plan, and last week McConnell helped nudge Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley toward the president's position. "Frist will be the outside man," says Slade Gorton, former GOP senator from Washington State, "and McConnell the inside man." McConnell foe Chuck Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, says: "Frist is still green compared to a lot of senators. An old hand like McConnell is the kind of guy who would remember: Why didn't you vote with us last time? You need a No. 2 kicking ass and taking names."

"Spending is speech." Critics say McConnell hasn't focused on much of anything in his Senate career except thwarting campaign finance reform. Former aides disagree, citing child nutrition programs as a particular McConnell priority. Still, the war against campaign finance reform is what McConnell is known for. Common Cause dubbed him the "Darth Vader of campaign finance reform," an image he relishes. "He does come off like a very tough S.O.B.," says Lewis. "He almost sticks his chin out, daring people to punch it."

For McConnell, it's simple. In his view, the First Amendment simply does not permit the regulation of money in politics. "Spending is speech," he has said on the Senate floor. Don Simon of Common Cause notes that McConnell is a fierce fundraiser, and he suspects an ulterior motive: "He also thinks that big-money politics is good and works to the benefit of the Republican Party." Still, there's little doubting McConnell's passion. The case challenging the campaign finance law is known as McConnell v. the Federal Election Commission, and it was McConnell who put together the legal team and the diverse coalition behind it.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/030519/19mcconnell.htm




http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[radfringe]

1. in 2001 while McCain was pushing bush for campaign reform

McConnell said the American people had as much interest in campaign reform as they did in dryer lint...

[Bandit]

2. And Republicans made HIM their Minority Leader

They obviously learned absolutely nothing from the election...

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3. this is the heart of their corruption