Well, it’s been a week and Joe Hoeffel has his latest post up now. I responded to his last post [on the 2006 PA races] here. Why do I continue to go after Hoeffel? Because he really let me down. How? He slunk away from this race, seemingly told to do so by the Rendell-Schumer-Reid trio, and stepped in line behind their candidate Bob Casey Jr. when there was a more progressive candidate already out there, Chuck Pennacchio.
His latest post addresses the issue of Campaign Finance and Lobbyists. He advocates changes. He cites a bill of his that was passed into law as a freshman legistator here in PA in 1977
…in June 1977 the House passed my bill to require disclosure of campaign donors and spending 10 days before election day. The law then merely required such disclosure 30 days after election. Some law! But my modest reform drove the old-timers crazy, and the bill languished in the Senate until the election of 1978 approached and the majority Democrats realized we needed some quick passage of reform laws on which to run for re-election. So some reforms were passed that year, but hardly any since then.
Go Joe!
I’m all for campaign finance reform. Fuck, I’m for publicly funded elections.
He closes his post with this
We need limits on campaign giving, full and prompt disclosure of donations, open and transparent relations between lobbyists and public officials, and an air-tight gift ban.
Which to me seems all to coincidental to what the Casey Jr. campaign is trying to fish out of the Santorum camp. The Casey Jr. campaign is currently running a blogad across a lot of political and non-political sites [including Philly Future] calling out Santorum for his association with a Swift Boat Vets for Truth-esque group called Americans for Job Security [aren’t the names just delicious?]. Now, I have no problem with the Casey Jr. camp calling out the Santorum side for this all too coincidental association – the AFJS group and Santorum’s website used the same stock footage for an ad in relation to Social Security. The Casey Jr. camp is going after AFJS through the FEC to get them to disclose who their donors are. AFJS is a registered 501(c)6 group which allows limited political activity without disclosing donors and it looks like they’re in bed with Santorum’s campaign [yuck, Man on PAC action]. What I DO have a problem with is the hypocrisy.
AFJS is largely funded by a large political action committee [PAC], American Insurance Association. AIA PAC gave more than $1M to AFJS in 2004. AIA PAC also gave $5500 in the last year to Chris PAC [Sen. Chris Dodd’s PAC]. Chris PAC gave $10,000 to Casey Jr.’s campaign over the summer. Now, that may sound like too many degrees of separation or not enough money, but that’s not necessarily what I’m getting at. I’m saying that they’re ALL IN BED WITH EACH OTHER. Campaigns who take money from PACs take money from everyone that PAC takes from. It’s like how you’re taught in Sex Ed class. Having sex with a person is like having sex with every person that that person had sex with, you’re exposed to all the STDs passed along the way. When you take PAC money, you’re infected by EVERY SINGLE affiliation those PACs have with other PACs, causes and candidates. Have you ever chided your friend for hooking up with that crazy whore or that disgusting manslut? Chide Casey Jr and Santorum. Show them you won’t stand for it.
Dave Sirota has an incredible piece on how the Dems have resorted and lauded having resorted to lobbyists for big money and the perks afforded to those lobbyists [original Roll Call post]
In case you thought that Democrats aren’t deliberately publicizing their efforts to shakedown corporate lobbyists – just look at Steny Hoyer’s taxpayer-funded Minority Whip website. Members of Congress always put up stories promoting themselves – and here, incredibly, Hoyer is actually promoting a story about his work setting up a formalized system of legalized bribery – as if the story itself is a trophy to be flaunted. That story notes that Hoyer regularly holds “listening sessions with lobbyists, trade association heads and corporate executives.” And the lobbyists love it. Said one insurance industry lobbyist, “It’s important for us in industry to have folks in the House Democratic leadership who want to hear from us.” Said a corporate lobbyist who used to be a Hoyer staffer, “I think lobbyists in the business community are interested in getting to know the Democratic leadership.”
Remember, this is not Roll Call “digging up” these stories – Roll Call is a lot of things, but it’s no investigative news hound. This is Democrats actively going out of their way to pitch stories about their efforts to shakedown corporate America – all at a time when they are also trying to berate the Republican’s “culture of corruption.” I mean, really – is this some sort of weird joke where the Democrats are actually doing the Republicans’ “hypocrisy” attack ads for them?
…
Make no mistake about it – in order to pursue a media strategy like this, you have to be wholly out of touch with ordinary people and the real world. Not sort of out of touch – totally and completely out of touch with how to communicate with voters, how to win elections, and what politics is supposed to be about. You have to have spent so much time in the greasy, slimy, odious halls of power rubbing elbows with this or that lobbyist that you can’t even remember what it’s like to talk to real people out in the country.
[as seen on the Pennacchio blog via Atrios]
Oh, and also, AIA PAC gave $6500 directly to Santorum.
And let me not forget the hypocrisy of Rendell-Schumer-Reid backing an anti-chioce candidate when the biggest fight in the Senate right now is over the presumably anti-choice SCOTUS nominee Samuel A. Alito. Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi writes:
If Democrats believe a Supreme Court nominee must state a commitment to the precedent set by Roe, why not hold a candidate for US Senate who will vote on a nominee to the same standard?
At a certain point, having it both ways is hypocritical. Voters can tell when you are speaking out of both sides of your mouth.
What say you, leadership?
Chuck Pennacchio does not take PAC money. His campaign is funded by individual donations from individuals like you reading this here blog post. Only you can keep up the fight for integrity in Pennsylvania and the US Senate. Tell your friends. Donate what you can. Keep up the fight.
