CAMPAIGN FINANCE UPDATE

As the Senate geared up for a debate on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill (McFein for short), which bans soft money, Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli was again grumbling about how the bill is flawed because it doesn’t close down the issue-ad loophole. He’s essentially right, but that’s no reason to vote against McFein, which does close another big loophole. If McFein passes, some soft money might be diverted to issue ads, but some would not, its sponsors believe. Sparking more valid concerns is a provision in the bill that bars corporations and unions from spending money on issue ads within sixty days of an election. That worries labor because the plan does nothing to curb individual spending on such ads. There are plenty of wealthy people with pro-corporate axes to grind. So even if corporate funding of issue ads is banned, the pro-business message will flood out in ads paid for by well-heeled individuals. Labor has few individual supporters with such deep pockets. The unions also oppose raising the $1,000 cap on hard money. Campaign reform groups are wobbling on this one, with some risking a compromise that would index hard-money limits to inflation. But any increase in the hard-money limit makes it easier for wealthy special interests to buy influence and access and does nothing to open up the system to ordinary Americans.

EXTRA! GORE WINS FLORIDA! HELLO?

The Palm Beach Post‘s recount of undervotes–hanging, dimpled, pinhole chads–gave Al Gore 784 additional votes in Palm Beach County. If the same recount method were followed statewide, Gore would win overwhelmingly. The butterfly ballots, on which confused voters marked both Gore and Pat Buchanan, cost Gore some 6,600 votes, the Post estimated; another 2,908 voted for Gore and Socialist David McReynolds.

RUN JEB RUN

There has been speculation recently that Jeb Bush may not run in 2002 because of “family concerns.” We hope he stays the course. It would be democracy’s loss if he didn’t give African-Americans and other Floridians a chance to register a protest against the electoral shenanigans last fall.

YOU CAN ALWAYS TELL A HARVARD MAN…

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, named as Harvard’s new president, is on record as saying that Africa is “under-polluted.” This phrase, Jon Wiener reminds us, appeared in a 1991 memo Summers wrote while he was chief economist for the World Bank. In it he recommended that the bank encourage “more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs” (less developed countries). He went on to give three reasons: (1) The cost of sickness caused by pollution–in terms of lost wages–is lower in the LDCs, since their average wages are so low, (2) LDCs are “under-polluted” by industry and (3) demand for a clean environment for health and aesthetic reasons is small in countries with high mortality rates. After the memo became public, Brazil’s secretary of the environment wrote Summers, “Your reasoning is perfectly logical but totally insane.”

BUSHISM OF THE WEEK

In a talk to Treasury Department workers: “The way I like to put it is this: There’s no bigger issue for the President to remind the moms and dads of America, if you happen to have a child,
be fortunate to have a child.”

THE CREDITORS’ BALL

The bankruptcy bill passed by the House denies bankruptcy protection to small borrowers who get in over their heads. The bill contains a special provision exempting American partners in Lloyd’s of London from having to pay their share of the insurer’s added costs from payouts on recent disasters. The bill also protects wealthy deadbeats’ real estate holdings in Florida, Texas and other states that local laws have made into bankruptcy havens. Those laws allow the wealthiest debtors to convert their hidden assets into lavish homes, immune from seizure.

NEWS OF THE WEAK IN REVIEW

Another of Bush’s conflict-of-interest Cabinet members can join Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, the man from Alcoa, and the boys from Big Oil. Say hi to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who served on the board of directors of Northwest Airlines. Nothing to do with the untimely sixty-day cooling-off period Bush slapped on the mechanics’ union at Northwest.