Campaign Finance Reform…What Channel?
Campaign 2004/Frank Salvato, Managing Editor
While it would seem a politically advantageous move, from a funding point of view, to wait until the Republicans have concluded their convention so both campaigns would have the same amount of money to spend, the level playing field being touted is in appearance only. The Federal Election Commission’s failure to rule on the 527 PAC’s made that matter a moot point for this election cycle.
The Democrats are doing a pretty good job of whining about George W. Bush’s campaign fundraising. They preach from the pulpit of hypocrisy that he has raised a massive amount, an obscene amount of money for his campaign. They contend that big business is dropping truckloads of campaign contributions off at the Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign Headquarters and that staffers are literally navigating through piles of money around the campaign offices due to the fact there is nowhere to put all of it. Meanwhile, the Democrats wring their hands and bow their heads offering the notion that they, the Democratic Party, the party of the downtrodden, the average American, the workingman’s party, the party who has put up a multi-millionaire as its candidate, are in dire straits where campaign finance is concerned. I would almost feel sorry for them if it weren’t such a non-truth.
The party of the common man cries poor while failing to lay claim to the "gifts” from George Soros – a man who admittedly would like to overthrow the government of this country – and those "philanthropists” in his circle. They fail to offer up that 527 PAC’s like America Coming Together and the ever-lovable misfits at MoveOn.org will use every last dime of their assets toward a common goal – the defeat of President Bush, even though it is against the newly enacted campaign finance reform laws. These "gift givers” and "independent” 527 PAC’s offer a well-spring of cash – Soros gave 12 million dollars alone and pledged his entire fortune to defeat George W. Bush – that will most certainly be used against President Bush and his re-election bid. All of this media wealth is tallied on the Kerry side in addition to the $75 million from the taxpayers his campaign will be "limited” to spend after he accepts his party’s nomination…roughly about the time of the end of the Republican National Convention.
When one takes the wealth of the Left and adds it to the taxpayer funding the Kerry campaign will get to finance his election bid it is pretty fair to say the field of play is quite tilted to the Left. In fact, if one takes into consideration that the mainstream press – like the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the LA Times and the Washington Post, the alphabet media outlets and a plethora of on-line offerings – slants to the Left in their everyday reporting (this has been proven and even admitted to) one can say that it is the Bush Campaign that should be crying poor.
Time will come when reality will strike even the most jaded of the Left. It will be then that they will open their eyes to the fact the Liberal-Left – and make no mistake about it, John Kerry represents the far Left of the Democratic Party – has to outspend their opponents no matter who they are in order to win any election they have a candidate in. This is primarily because they offer the theory of ideology rather than the common sense of reality. In theory everything looks great. In reality the facts of the matter change dramatically. One needs only to attend a junior high school science fair to understand this fact.
No, the only thing John Kerry is doing by manipulating the traditional act of accepting his party’s nomination well after the Democratic Convention has passed is to prove to the public that even he is affected by his arrogance. Why should traditionalism or a campaign finance reform law stand in the way of what he wants? Just like the fact Teresa Heinz Kerry had a fire hydrant moved so she could park her car in a certain spot near their Beacon Hill residence – a fact verified by one of their neighbors and a perk seldom attained by we common folk – John Kerry doesn’t pretend to play by the rules to which the rest of us are bound. Of course we should have understood the extent of that arrogance when he fell down on an Idaho ski slope and blamed the secret service agent that was there to ensure his safety. That’s arrogance with a capital "A.”
Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He served as an editor and is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch. He writes regularly for GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.