President Obama and the Democrats might be inappropriate champions for the super PAC backlash.
Much of the reporting on super PACs and the 2012 election have blasted Republicans. In part, that’s because the Republican presidential candidates are the only ones participating in a primary election. But in this year, where rich-bashing is especially vogue, the Democrats have jumped on the bandwagon, deriding Republicans as the “party of secret money.”
But as Politico reports, “so are the Democrats”:
In recent days, Obama released an ad blasting “secretive oil billionaires” for attacks on him, Nancy Pelosi unveiled a campaign slogan, calling for “a new politics free of special interest influence,” and the Democratic National Committee released a Web ad accusing Mitt Romney of lying about his ties to a super PAC that’s spent millions supporting him.
Maybe that would have sounded better in 2008, when Obama put the kibosh on the Democratic outside money infrastructure — or even in 2010, when Obama led a chorus of Democrats assailing Republicans’ outside spending.
But this year, Democrats are playing the same game. Obama’s team has blessed a network of super PACs trying to raise the same seven-figure checks as Romney’s. And Obama’s allies have gone even further than Romney’s, setting up nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors at all.
Obama’s famous campaign finance machine – expected to raise as much as $1 billion this year – might make him and his party unworthy champions of this theme:
In fact, top Democrats are so adament about the need to raise unlimited — and sometimes secret — cash this year that some operatives aren’t pleased about the recent attacks. It’s a whole lot tougher to get wealthy liberals to fork over mega-checks when the politicians who’d benefit are ripping Republicans for taking the same types of contributions.
Clearly, this problem transcends party politics and obscures the whole system. The pot will have to keep calling the kettle black until we get money out of politics altogether.
Read more:
Politico: Dems bash, bank secret cash
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