Salon.com Politics | Poison Paul?
Things are really heating up early in this final week of campaign finance reform. Two quotes speak the most to me, "[i]t's guys like Wellstone who hurt the cause of reform far greater than Mitch McConnell ... [t]he purists are what Lenin called 'useful idiots.' They end up doing more damage to the cause of reform than the most vicious opponents." My brother and I noticed something similar to this sentiment within the party back in '92 while watching "The War Room." There was a heated debate about weather or not to make more signs for the TV cameras on the final night of the Democratic convention. Second quote from Salon article, "I don't think these guys are the great chess players that everyone makes them out to be." An interesting take on the people we expect to be involved in vast conspiracies. When you're on the side of this reform, as I am, it is easy to see anyone who supports something other than what was proposed as a party to a scheme to destroy the bill. However, there are some very sane, though perhaps strategically foolish, reasons for supporting the Wellstone amendment. As noted in the article, the real vote that will show who does and does not support the amendment is on non-severability. (Whether to include a provision in the bill that if any piece of it is overturned by the courts, the entire bill becomes invalid.) Almost all bills are non-severable and Bush's request to make this one severable is an interesting though bold-faced strategy. I want to watch the severability debate. That will be ugly.
- posted by levinson @ 3/27/2001 06:37:00 AM