{"id":15233,"date":"2011-03-11T09:54:22","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T15:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=15233"},"modified":"2011-03-11T09:54:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T15:54:22","slug":"new-york-times-editorial-cynical-non-enforcers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=15233","title":{"rendered":"New York Times Editorial: Cynical Non-Enforcers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>New York Times<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Cynical Non-Enforcers<\/strong><br \/>\nEditorial<br \/>\nMarch 11, 2011<\/p>\n<p>Gridlock is the name of the game at the Federal Election Commission, where  all three Republican members routinely block any punishment of even the most  blatant violators.<\/p>\n<p>In one recent case, the commission\u2019s professional investigators properly  concluded that campaign laws were violated by Kansas Republicans who tapped  $100,000 in banned soft money to pay for party members&#8217; travel expenses to the  2008 presidential convention. In another, the staff recommended action against  Georgia Democrats who improperly paid almost $500,000 in party salaries from an  equally forbidden soft money account.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, these cases would  have drawn penalties. And now? Not even a slap on the wrist.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->In both  cases, the three Republican members voted to ignore the staff recommendations  for enforcement. The three Democratic members, to their credit, urged strong  action. But the 3-to-3 deadlock meant nothing happened.<\/p>\n<p>The message to  candidates entering the new era of unlimited big-money campaigning is clear. So  long as the Republican members of the F.E.C. get their way, nobody&#8217;s minding the  store and anything goes.<\/p>\n<p>The F.E.C. is only one of many problems. After  the Supreme Court misguidedly overturned limits on corporate spending, Senate  Republicans blocked disclosure of corporate and union check writers. Republicans  in both chambers are determined to deep-six the public subsidy alternative for  presidential campaigns, adopted in the wake of Watergate.<\/p>\n<p>With 2012 in  sight, more, not less, reform is urgently needed. Five of the six F.E.C. seats  come up for replacement next month. The Senate&#8217;s preference will be to confirm  safe loyalists chosen by party bigwigs. President Obama can make a real  difference if he breaks the tradition by selecting truly independent watchdogs  as the two parties&#8217; nominees &#8211; ones committed to enforcing the law &#8211; and fights  for their confirmation.<\/p>\n<p><em>via<\/em>:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracy21.org\/\">Democracy 21<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York Times Cynical Non-Enforcers Editorial March 11, 2011 Gridlock is the name of the game at the Federal Election Commission, where all three Republican members routinely block any punishment of even the most blatant violators. In one recent case, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=15233\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-3XH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15233"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15236,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15233\/revisions\/15236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}