LA Times Editorial - "The political chamber: U.S. Chamber of Commerce's campaign spending ..."

[TomCADem]

Millions of in-kind contributions in the form of slanted news coverage by Fox News, astroturf from Freedom Works and the Koch Brothers, millions from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and millions in tax-exempt corporate charitable contributions being used for politics by Karl Rove's group American Crossroads. Corporate Coup 2010 has already begun.

It is no coincidence that the vast bulk of this money is going to the Republicans. Ignore the corporate media narratives. Fight for Democratic candidates in Election 2010.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-foreign-20101013,0,5198088.story

When the Supreme Court struck down limits on election spending by corporations and unions this year, it left undisturbed a federal law prohibiting foreigners — individuals or businesses — from spending on American election campaigns. Now Democrats, led by President Obama, have been insinuating that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce violated the law by depositing dues from its foreign chapters into a fund that is also used for political advertising.

The law is an important one, and the Federal Election Commission should certainly investigate any evidence that funding for the chamber's campaign activities comes from corporations outside the country. But so far the Democrats' claim has not been substantiated.

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Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has asked the FEC to ensure that organizations like the chamber demonstrate through a "reasonable accounting method," as the law requires, that foreign funds weren't used for campaign purposes. That's a good idea, though it's unclear whether the commission can enforce the law in an individual case unless a credible complaint is filed.

That said, the controversy over possible foreign involvement is to some extent a sideshow. The more worrisome aspect of the chamber's political activities is that, like other groups, it doesn't have to publicly disclose the names of the domestic corporations that are underwriting its political ads. It would be required to do so in a timely fashion under legislation known as the DISCLOSE Act, which fell victim to a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The danger is that the chamber's election efforts, however they are funded, might produce a Congress that is even more antagonistic to disclosure than the current one.