Anonymous political speakers support DISCLOSE Act in order to stifle anonymous speech

July 19, 2010   •  By Sean Parnell
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Yet more evidence emerged yesterday, in news coverage regarding the dim prospects for passage of the DISCLOSE Act in the U.S. Senate, that members of the so-called campaign finance ‘reform’ community simply do not have a well-developed sense of irony.

The DISCLOSE Act, we are continuously told, will solve the problem of anonymous political speech – and there is little doubt that anonymous political speech is a problem, according to the “reformers.”

Campaign Legal Center, for example, ominously warns that “…without the DISCLOSE Act, anonymous groups will be able to hide their financial backers,”  while the House Democratic Caucus states that the DISCLOSE Act “will stop Wall Street, Big Oil, and U.S. corporations controlled by foreign – or even hostile – governments from secretly manipulating elections by funneling money to fly-by-night front groups that run last minute attack ads and other anonymous election advertisements.”  

Former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, now presumably full-time as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also weighed in against anonymous political speech, saying shortly after the passage of DISCLOSE in the House that “The DISCLOSE Act closes many of the loopholes created by the Citizens United ruling and establishes tough new rules that will prevent corporations from launching anonymous smear campaigns…” 

So, yesterday I’m reading an article in Politico about the DISCLOSE Act and its uncertain fate in the Senate:

Rocky road for campaign finance 

A sweeping overhaul of the campaign finance system seems destined to stall in the Senate – adding to tensions with House Democrats who have grown tired of taking politically risky votes only to see their proposals die on the Senate steps…

 “Another bill, another fight with the Senate,” said one exasperated House Democratic aide. “Most of the frustration is directed at Senate Republicans who have absolutely no desire to work to get anything done, so hunting for one or two Senate GOP votes is a painful fact of legislative life.”

Later the article reports

A House Democratic aide close to negotiations on the bill emphasized that House leaders are still pressuring Reid and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York to push the campaign finance proposal to the Senate floor.

“If they want to support allowing powerful special interests to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase our democracy, then the American people should see that on TV and on C-SPAN,” the aide said. “It is a tall order, and no one has ever believed that this would be easy. The campaign finance bill that John McCain offered took years to get passed, but that’s not a reason not to call a vote and do it.”

And later still

“Time and time again, the House has demonstrated it can get tough things done,” said one senior House Democratic aide. “I don’t envy the position Sen. Reid is in, dealing with a semi-dysfunctional body that has been hijacked by Washington Republicans, but he has to bring the DISCLOSE Act up for a vote.”

Astute observers will note that absent from the news story are the actual names of the people speaking out about legislation, politics, and elected officials. In other words, anonymous political speech. No disclosure (or if you prefer, DISCLOSURE) at all of who is speaking.

Apparently, anonymous political speech is only a problem when it comes from outside of the offices of our elected officials.

Sean Parnell

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