Redstate

By Brad Smith Posted in User Blogs — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

From the diaries:

As Republicans prepare to regulate so-called "527s" today, no doubt they are heartened to find the Washington Post solidly behind them.  Down at the bottom of an editorial page that leads off with an editorial that attacks not just Tom DeLay, but the entire GOP House and Majority Leader John Boehner by name, the Post comes out in favor of 527 regulation.  The editorial concludes that regulating 527s won't solve any problems, but that's "not a reason for inaction now."  Later regulation, hints the Post, can take care of "nonprofit groups and trade associations."  (I kept doing word searches but couldn't find "union" anywhere in the list of future targets.)

Read on.

Republicans would do well to remember where the Post stood back in 2004, when 527 groups were out supporting Democratic efforts to elect John Kerry, and the GOP had yet to get into the 527 game, due to the tactical decisions of their strategists: then, the Post wrote,

There is reason to proceed cautiously in this sensitive and legally complicated area. As we've said previously, in outlawing soft money for political parties and putting limits on outside group broadcasts that mention candidates near Election Day, Congress appeared to assume that other soft-money spending by outside groups, which some would have the FEC ban, was permissible. The influence of soft money -- clearly corrupting for the political parties with the squalid involvement of elected officials in extracting huge checks from those they oversee -- is less evident, at least on the record so far, when it comes to outside groups. Moreover, any regulation in this area must be carefully crafted to avoid infringing on the free-speech rights of groups that legitimately seek to have their voices heard on issues. Cracking down on the groups, known as 527s for the section of the tax code under which they're organized, could have the unintended consequence of driving this activity further underground. Some groups could shift their status to other sections of the tax code that do not require them to disclose their donors or spending, unlike 527s.

(I couldn't find this editorial on-line, but those with Lexis can pick it up - May 13, 2004, p. A28).

The Post hints at it at least one motive behind its change of heart, beyond the fact that John Kerry is now history:

Democrats, with the rise of the Internet, have been improving their hard-money fundraising. Republicans are bound to draw even in the 527 race if it continues.

In other words, with the GOP looking a bit more "French" every day, fighting the last war, it is safe for the Post to come out again in favor of more restrictions, restrictions which will "work against the GOP. Honest.