Gail Collins, on the “Rise of the Richies”:
… Back in the days of the Good John McCain, Congress prohibited corporations from running ad campaigns during the election season that were aimed at influencing a race. (He was so good, the Good John McCain. Always wandering around New Hampshire talking about campaign finance reform. The only person who ever made it interesting. Whatever happened to him?)
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In January, the Roberts court, in a burst of creative overreaching, ruled 5 to 4 that corporations have the same free speech rights as people and knocked out Good John McCain’s law. Right now, people in Congress are trying to find a fix for that one. They’re focusing on transparency, which is something people always claim to like.
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“If you want to run a nasty negative ad, the public should have the right to know who you really are,” said Chuck Schumer, the Senate sponsor of the painfully named Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act. Under the bill, a theoretical ad would not only say it was paid for by Friends of Puppies but also that the top Friends of Puppies donors were BP, Goldman Sachs, A.I.G., Halliburton and Blackwater.
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The bill is scheduled to go to the floor of the House soon, but it has gotten heavy artillery from the Republican leadership, as well as groups of all stripes that don’t want to reveal their big donors.
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“When someone like Schumer wants to know who’s paying for an ad — let’s be honest. They’re taking names,” said R. Bruce Josten of the United States Chamber of Commerce.
Megacorporations and other masters-of-the-universe being exposed to the cruel scrutiny of the plebes! It’s just inhumane! Because the roaches have to scurry away when the light shines on them… it’s in their wiring!
Bleah. I would rather watch musical theatre than roaches, even roaches in human form. And it’s not like I know much about musical theatre, although the DVD of Sondheim’s Putting It Together may just be the single tiny perfect exemplar of the entire genre:
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Who else could put together such a romantic duet from a song originally written for John Hinckley and Squeaky Fromme?