527s scot free in 2004

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.thehill.com/news/051204/fec.aspx

The general counsel of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) yesterday urged the agency to delay for three months any new regulations that would restrict 527 groups and other special-interest organizations from spending millions of dollars to influence the 2004 election.

The general counsel’s recommendation to delay new regulations is a huge victory for Democrats, who are relying heavily on the television advertising campaigns and voter-mobilization efforts funded by these groups to make up for their substantial funding disparity compared to Republicans.

The recommendation also provides cover for agency commissioners who are leery about curbing the influence of unlimited political donations on federal races, including the race for the White House.

FEC sources and outside observers of the agency say the counsel’s recommendation will make it easier for commissioners to vote this week not to crack down on 527 groups in the middle of an election year. The tax-exempt groups are named after a section of the tax code.

[Doosh]

1. good, mccain-feingold is crippling us, we need this loophole badly

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. I wished that the Supreme Court had overruled McCain-Feingold.

Thank God that we still have the 527's!

[alcuno]

4. loophole=legal

Let the 527's stay legal.

[KAZ]

5. Oh, get lost....

Oh, WE need this badly? It's just WE, uh? You're not that clever.

[sofa king]

2. I smell a rat here.

Who's gonna call this a victory for Democrats when, in a few months, half a billion dollars of soft money oozes into the coffers of freshly-sprouted Republican 527s?

[demdave]

6. Exactly, then you can expect the usual crybaby squeals of "unfair"

Mark my words, this 527 crap will come back to bite us where we sit.

[KAZ]

8. Oh, and what would you have "dem"dave?

Pre-527 hasn't bit us in the ass? How about a whole shitload of religious deductions that built a public stage for the Falwells amongst us? The new 527s need to take a page from that book.

[demdave]

9. So your contention is that the Reps have historically out spent us pre-527

and this somehow levels the playing field? If they had the money there to donate under the old rules, what stops them from also using the 527 loophole? I stand by my original statement that this loophole will come back to bite us. It will be used by the Reps at a level that only deep pockets can produce.

As for your slam at religion, how would you curtail that? I see and hear very few paid ads on TV or the radio. What they do inside the confines of their churches will happen regardless. If your idea, and I am using your reference of deductions as a basis, is to tax the churches out of existence, then you will merely turn the people of religion that currently vote Dem against us. The VAST majority of voters are religious to some degree.

[Gothmog]

7. GOP letter wiring campaign failed

Bush/Cheney had a massive faked letter writing/canned e-mail campaign in place with respect this rule. I was bad and forwarded the page for generating canned e-mails to the FCC.

I am glad that the FCC is not regulating 527s at this time.