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New WH Counsel: Sign of Campaign Finance Armageddon?
Gregory Craig, the White House counsel, is on his way out. Bob Bauer, the president's personal lawyer, will be taking Craig's place. Bauer, interestingly, is considered an expert in campaign finance law. That's good, because Bauer will need to deal with the fallout when the Supreme Court implodes campaign finance law sometime in the next few months, a senior administration official tells Marc Ambinder. (The relevant case is Citizens United v. FEC, which could open the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in federal elections.) Here's what the official told Ambinder:
[Bauer's] expertise in election law isn't just relevant so we can write great briefs in litigation. As we enter 2010, having clear rules of the road on what the White House and its staff can and cannot do to help Democratic candidates will become a critical aspect of the White House Counsel's job—and there's no lawyer in America who knows that better than Bob. Such skill is even more critical as we approach 2012—and—here's the wild card—if the Supreme Court does major violence to the campaign finance regulation regime (as most observers expect by June), then deciding how to try to rewrite those laws, or what to do in the wild west regime that will replace current law, will be a critical task. And who better to have on point than Bob Bauer.
Campaign finance reformers have been trying to promote the idea that an adverse decision in Citizens United might ultimately help their cause—because the resulting deluge of corporate money in elections could create momentum for reform. Until now, that seemed a bit like whistling past the graveyard. But if the administration is already considering "how to rewrite" campaign finance laws in the event that the Supreme Court opens the floodgates, maybe reformers are on to something after all.
NEED PUBLIC FINANCING OF CAMPAIGNS NOW!!
If this indeed led to real, genuine campaign finance reform that kicks corporate influence to the curb, then it is fine by me.
The amount of leverage and control wielded by corporations is maddening. The founding fathers would no longer recognize the Republic as it functions today.
Federal election campaigns should be publicly funded. Candidates would be given the same amount of cash and equal access through publicly funded media outlets. Removing corporate control of politicians is really the only way we are going to get fair health insurance reform, climate reform, etc.
I heard on Democracy Now! this morning that United HealthCare encouraged its employs to lobby thier representatives to defeat health insurance reform. You know what? I'm okay with this. I think that the extent of corporate lobbying should go only as far as allowing employees to contact their representatives. Anything beyond that should not be legal.
We need elected officials that consider the real human beings in their districts to be their constituents, not the corporations. While we are at it, include removing the personhood of corporations in the campaign finance reform too.
This really should be an issue that tea baggers should support too. They claim to be fed up with corporate welfare too. I imagine they would ultimately be against it...due to it "obviously" being communo-facists...and that Obama would be supporting it.
Hillary's campaign is dead
Hillary's campaign is dead in the water and she's just too dumb to know it. Feeling that she had a devine right to the White House she can't believe the irony of having her chance at making history snatched away by the very same kind of candidate, a liberal black man, that under any other circumstances she would have backed 100 percent. History will be made but it won't be made by her. Hillary, it's time to face reality, and the reality is that America does not want you in the White House.
Foreign powers dictate the positions of both parties
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html?th&emc=th
The political process is dead. All that is left is financial transactions and lies.