Republicans don’t have broad public support, so they try to “win” elections by other means: By gaming election rules, funneling tons of special interest money to their candidates, smearing rivals, suppressing opponents’ voters. While expending huge sums and countless man hours trying to prevent Americans from voting in their own country, they fiercely oppose campaign regulations — especially those aimed at bringing under control the raising and spending of money — at the same time.
Fights over campaign finance are bitter, prolonged, and sometimes carnival-like; for example, in Wisconsin, a half dozen of GOP presidential candidate Scott Walker’s political associates have been convicted of felony campaign violations. In that state, Republicans are especially aggressive in flouting campaign and election laws.
Last week, the Republican members of the Federal Election Commission, which enforces federal campaign finance laws, faced off with the Democrats on the commission in a dialogue that went like this:
Weintraub (Democrat, chair): “I cannot believe that you are actually going to take the position that I am not a person. A corporation is a person, but I’m not a person? You want to insist that I am not a person?”
Petersen (Republican, vice chair): “That’s right.”
Read the story here.
Photos: Weintraub and Peterson