I remain stunned that the Supreme Court failed to eviscerate "McCain-Feingold." It's hard to imagine legislation that is more antithetical to American values or legislation whose side-effects so far overshadow its benefits.
In The Soros Agenda (paid site only) the Wall Street Journal Ed page illustrates how well we've "chased the money out of politics:"
The press corps is finally giving billionaire George Soros the attention he deserves as the new Daddy Warbucks of the Democratic Party. Mr. Soros has responded that all he's doing is exercising his own Constitutional right to free speech. We'd agree, except for the detail that the world's 38th richest man (according to Forbes) is using his money to restrict everyone else's freedom.In his political funding, Mr. Soros is exploiting the loophole in campaign finance laws that lets billionaires donate however much they want to private political lobbies. But more than that, he also turns out to be a leading cash cow for the Washington lobbies trying to restrict media competition and political speech. Mr. Soros is the personification of what deserves to be called the "public interest" conceit.
This is the idea that folks like Mr. Soros are merely selfless benefactors of truth and justice, but companies trying to protect their rights in Washington are greedy special interests. The hedge-fund operator made his money practicing capitalism but now he spends it trying to give himself and his ideological allies an advantage over other voices.
Before rending any favorite garments over this expenditure, though, let's recall that we spend less on electing our leaders than GM spends in a year advertising cars or P&G does selling hair products and toothpaste. For that matter, the reputable Thai Farmer's Bank, one of country's biggest, estimated that Thailand spent a total of $800 million just to run a 45-day parliamentary election in 1996. Our democracy is a bargain in comparison.