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September 26, 2005
Gaining Admission To The Moonbat Grotto
Over at townhall.com Tony Snow examines the cause of former nice guy Harry Reid's descent into the "moonbat grotto". Tony notes that Reid's opposition to SCOTUS nominee John Roberts is evidently based on nothing more than the fact that years ago Roberts used the term "illegal amigos" in a DoJ memorandum. Why, Snow wonders, is a formerly partisan but rational senator now promulgating such non-rational opposition to an obviously qualified candidate?
Here is the two-word answer: McCain-Feingold. The McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill, designed grandly to "take money out of politics," predictably produced the opposite effect. It sucked in a flood of cash, gutted the major political parties and made poseurs more unaccountable than ever before. [...]
Democrats find themselves beholden to a batch of petulant billionaires, led by George Soros, Peter Lewis and Steven Bing. That trio alone contributed nearly $65 million to Democratic candidates and causes during the 2004 election cycle. [...]
Much of this cash went to such organizations as MoveOn.org, the Joint Victory Campaign 2004, the Media Fund and the now-defunct America Coming Together -- all of which spent tens of millions of dollars on such losing causes as John Kerry's candidacy, opposition to the Iraq war and attempts to crush John Roberts' original nomination to the Supreme Court. [...]
Thus, the solution to our conundrum: Harry Reid has to act like a nut in public because money talks. As Senate leader, Reid has to tilt at every windmill, charge into every fusillade and dip his head into every wood-chipper just to please his billionaire bosses.
This set-up has also allowed a truly marginalized character like Cindy Sheehan to grab disproportionate amounts of media time--this is the same Cindy Sheehan whose plan to help Katrina-devastated New Orleans consisted of removing the federal troops from the city!
This is yet another answer to the question: "What does it really mean to be a progressive?" I guess an ordinary person would think progressivism would concern itself with the little guy. Maybe it's similar to the progressives' vaunted concern over women's rights in Afghanistan. Or the condition of the oppressed Marsh Arabs in Iraq. Or...
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