RSSDemocrats Respond: The Supreme Court? Pfft, Forget About Them
Carl Andrews | January 25, 2010
As a rule, Democrats tend to ignore the U.S. Constitution when some piddling provison or another is out of synch with their ideology.
The Second Amendment immediately comes to mind.
They would love to see the Supreme Court revoke it.
However, now that the Supreme Court has issued a ruling overturning limits on campaign spending as un-Constitutional, they are having a hissy fit.
Democrats are exploring ways to counter a Supreme Court ruling that threw out a century of limits on corporate political spending, hoping it will hand them a populist issue to stem a Republican tide rising on public anger.
President Barack Obama devoted his weekly address to the decision, calling it a victory for “special interests and their lobbyists.” He cited “one of the great Republican presidents, Teddy Roosevelt,” who “warned of the impact of unbridled, corporate spending” on elections.
Possible legislation includes requiring corporations to obtain shareholder approval before funding political advertisements and blocking companies from deducting election spending as a business expense on their taxes.
Another proposal, borrowed from existing rules for political candidates, is requiring “the CEO of the corporation to make a declaration at the end of an ad saying, ‘I’m the CEO of X Corp. and I approved this ad,’ ” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), who heads the House Democrats’ campaign committee.
On Thursday, justices split 5-4 along their ideological divide to grant corporations and unions the right to make unlimited expenditures promoting or attacking candidates.
Democrats had anticipated the Supreme Court’s decision for months, and quickly rolled out both political rhetoric and legislative proposals.
Friday, White House Special Counsel Norman Eisen met to discuss options with aides to Mr. Van Hollen and Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), as well as Justice Department staff and Fred Wertheimer, a longtime activist on campaign-finance issues, officials said.
Mr. Van Hollen said Democrats also are weighing an effort to bar companies that received federal bailouts and big government contractors from electioneering, similar to rules affecting federal employees.
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