TOM PAINE: Trading In Favors:

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Soft money documents imply quid pro quo between donors and politicians

http://www.publici.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=531&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0

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By Alex Knott and Aubrey Bruggeman


WASHINGTON, July 2, 2003 -- Legislative favors, increased access to federal lawmakers and instructions on how to use loopholes to evade federal contribution limits—these are just some of the arrangements discussed in recently released documents relating to judicial challenges of a new soft money law, a Center for Public Integrity study has found.

Such situations appear in many of the more than 40,000 documents the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia subpoenaed during the discovery process, which the Center obtained in electronic form for a two-week study.

A document that shows coordination between federal races and state parties is a July 2000 letter from Jack David to Dulce Zahniser, then-director of Team 100 for the Republican National Committee. Team 100 is an exclusive group of people who are responsible for raising at least $100,000 each for the Republican Party. David, who has contributed more than $200,000 to the RNC since 2000, wrote to the RNC regarding his donations to the Republican National State Elections Committee.

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The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, aimed at reducing special interest financing in federal elections, was passed by Congress and signed into law on March 27, 2002. Prior to its passage, contributions of soft money to state and federal political parties were largely unregulated. While the law has mandated increased limits on soft money donations and restricted some party involvement in elections, the regulation is being challenged in court and was partially struck down. But the United States District Court issued a stay on its decision on May 19th. The McCain-Feingold law will remain in effect at least until September, when the Supreme Court hears the case to decide whether the most sweeping campaign finance laws passed in nearly 30 years will stand.

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One intriguing document was an April 2000 letter from the former Republican National Committee Finance Chairman Mel Sembler (now the U.S. Ambassador to Italy) to Lodwrick M. Cook, the co-chairman of Global Crossing, tying a large donation to a recently approved merger.

“I was delighted to hear the good news about the merger,” the letter states. “As you recall in our conversation some weeks ago you agreed to upgrade your Team 100 membership to the Regent program ($250,000) when the merger was approved. Thankfully, this has now been approved, so I am taking the liberty of enclosing an invoice for the additional upgrade.”

The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger with Frontier Corporation, the nation’s fifth-largest long-distance telephone company, six months before the letter. The acquisition cost Global $11.2 billion in stock. With 1998 revenue of $2.6 billion Frontier was a serious player in the telecommunications market.

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This article lays out in black and white how the republican party has pimped out the government to special interests. It is an unbelievable fact that legislation is being bought and sold by these people.

I know that this may be dry, boring reading to some, but it goes to the heart of what a bunch of money-hungry thugs these people are and how there is nothing that they will not stoop to in order to get their way.