Thursday, December 11, 2003
There is so much wrong with the yesterday's ludicrous, borderline fascist Supreme Court campaign finance ruling. Some thoughts:
1. The elephant in the room created by the ruling is the obvious equal protection problem. Boiled down, what the USSC is saying is that the New York Times and Fox News have the right to endorse a political candidate, but the Sierra Club and the Christian Coalition do not. Any way you look at the Fourteenth Amendment, the position the court took yesterday is simply maddening.
2. Sandra Day O'Connor needs to be in an assisted-living facility, not on the nation's highest court. Immediately, please.
3. For once, the usually flawless Bush/Rove political instincts failed. When GWB signed this suppurating pustule of a bill, I suspect he was gambling that the Supreme Court would slap it down, a not unreasonable belief. What I think happened was that there was a determination that nutty John McCain would bolt the party if Bush vetoed the bill, so Karl Rove in his Machiavellian way prevailed on Bush to sign it to have it both ways. What Rove didn't see coming was this bizarre, dictatorial ruling by the Court. So, for the moment, we--those of us who are the end users of the First Amendment--are screwed.
4. The unintended consequences of this law will be legion. There will be all sorts of money streams going and coming all the hell over the place. To use McCain's language, this law will not "get money out of politics." That, to put it gently, will not happen. What will happen is that money will flow, not to parties, but to all sorts of mysterious advocacy groups who will make the use of code words into high art. George Soros saw this coming, as did his Republican counterparts. Politics is only going to get dirtier and more corrupt, if that is possible.
1. The elephant in the room created by the ruling is the obvious equal protection problem. Boiled down, what the USSC is saying is that the New York Times and Fox News have the right to endorse a political candidate, but the Sierra Club and the Christian Coalition do not. Any way you look at the Fourteenth Amendment, the position the court took yesterday is simply maddening.
2. Sandra Day O'Connor needs to be in an assisted-living facility, not on the nation's highest court. Immediately, please.
3. For once, the usually flawless Bush/Rove political instincts failed. When GWB signed this suppurating pustule of a bill, I suspect he was gambling that the Supreme Court would slap it down, a not unreasonable belief. What I think happened was that there was a determination that nutty John McCain would bolt the party if Bush vetoed the bill, so Karl Rove in his Machiavellian way prevailed on Bush to sign it to have it both ways. What Rove didn't see coming was this bizarre, dictatorial ruling by the Court. So, for the moment, we--those of us who are the end users of the First Amendment--are screwed.
4. The unintended consequences of this law will be legion. There will be all sorts of money streams going and coming all the hell over the place. To use McCain's language, this law will not "get money out of politics." That, to put it gently, will not happen. What will happen is that money will flow, not to parties, but to all sorts of mysterious advocacy groups who will make the use of code words into high art. George Soros saw this coming, as did his Republican counterparts. Politics is only going to get dirtier and more corrupt, if that is possible.
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