Loosening Restrictions?

Today's Boston Globe campaign finance coverage reveals a secret effort to make campaign finance restrictions more lenient.  Sort of.  Enjoy the following excerpt, with annotations:

Little-noticed language in campaign finance bills would help parties and their candidates get around restrictions on working together on political campaigns — essentially allowing parties to tap into their deep well of funds to more directly help their favored candidates.

Um.  People noticed.  I daresay it is a critical part of the bill, actually. 

[snip]

The US Chamber of Commerce has said it is preparing to spend $50 million on midterm elections, an early sign of a corporate media blitz to come.

Powerful unions are also planning massive spending on the fall campaigns. Officials from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have told The Hill newspaper that the union plans to top $50 million in spending, while the Service Employees International Union reportedly plans to spend $44 million.

Imagine.  A potential sea-change realigning election.   At which the direction of foreign and domestic policy could reverse.  Or not.  And corporations and unions want to participate.  Jeez, next thing you know they'll employ prominent individuals to talk with their powerful friends about the content of legislation.

[snip]

The effort to strengthen the power of political parties would “address the disproportionate influence’’ the Supreme Court gave to big corporations by striking down broadcast regulations in the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill, said US Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Could someone please advise Rep. Van Hollen that larding the public record with exhortations about "leveling" is probably not the most clever strategy? 

But even as lawmakers try to counter the effects of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the voice of the average citizen is already shrinking, said Sarah Dufendach, vice president of legislative affairs for the watchdog group Common Cause.

“Regular-old Joe Six-pack has been drowned out for a long time,’’ she said. “The court made a bad system intolerable.’’

That's just because Joe picked the wrong sobriquet.  He should go with Joe the Plumber.