Trying to decide whether Russ Feingold or Steve Benen is right about Super PACs is giving me a headache.
Ex-Sen. Russ Feingold on Thursday night sharply criticized Democrats for forming “super” political action committees that can take unlimited corporate cash, flatly calling the entities “wrong.”
“I empathize with the desire to fight fire with fire, but Democrats should just never be in the business of taking unlimited corporate contributions,” Feingold told the audience of liberal activists and bloggers gathered here for the Netroots Nation convention, eliciting cheers. “It’s dancing with the devil, and it’s a game that we will never win.”
The Wisconsin Democrat specifically went after Priorities USA, a Democratic Super PAC run by two former White House aides, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney. The group already has been active in the 2012 presidential race, and several other Democratic groups have formed to mimic the massive campaign spending deployed by GOP groups such as American Crossroads in 2010.
“Creating those kind of Super PACs for Democrats is wrong,” Feingold said.
Here’s Benen:
The problem, though, has to do with changes Democrats didn’t want, but are nevertheless stuck with. We’re talking about Democrats and their allies simply playing by the rules — rules they don’t like, rules they wish were different, rules they’d gladly change, but the rules nevertheless.
Feingold is arguing, in effect, that Republicans can go ahead and play by the rules if they want to, but Democrats should impose tougher rules on themselves, on purpose, even if it makes GOP victories more likely, just on principle.
Benen’s point is obvious. Unilateral disarmament is usually foolish. But, is this a case where we lose either way? It’s easy to argue that it is better to lose with honor, but is that true?
With a big caveat, I have to side with Feingold. The caveat is, that we have to have a real answer to how we raise a lot more money from small donors. Answering that kind of question is what the Netroots Nation conference should be focused on like a laser.
