With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections. (Applause.) I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. (Applause.) They should be decided by the American people. And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.As I previously posted, Obama was wrong on the holding of the case at issue and engaged in unjustified demagogory by confronting the Justices on the issue at the State of the Union address. Justice Alito's act of mouthing the truth to power in response has dominated the post-SOTU discussion.
Nonetheless, if Obama really is concerned about foreign campaign donations, then Obama should request that Attorney General Eric Holder (or an Acting Attorney General since Holder likely has a conflict) appoint a special counsel with the power to investigate, and if justified, prosecute violations of the laws, and conspiracies to violate the laws, forbidding foreign contributions.
And the place the special counsel can start is with Obama's 2008 campaign, which disabled security features in its credit card web portal so as to allow donors to evade restrictions on numerous aspects of the federal campaign laws, including the prohibition on foreign contributions:
That the Obama campaign received foreign donations as a result of this scheme may be the only thing agreed-upon by both Pamela Geller and Charles Johnson. Indeed, Obama for America has admitted receiving foreign contributions. The fact that the Federal Election Commission is not investigating the allegations necessitates a special counsel.Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity, campaign officials confirmed....
The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.
These laws barring foreign contributions remain untouched by the recent Supreme Court ruling, so Obama need not worry about the validity of the relevant laws on the books. (If Obama didn't understand that prior to the SOTU, he surely understands that now.)
The federal conspiracy laws surely could be used to prosecute such a scheme, if the investigation bears out the necessary elements of a criminal conspiracy to violate the campaign laws. The fact that some or all of the contributions were returned after negative publicity does not negate any criminal conspiracy.
So President Obama, with all due respect, I call upon you to request that Attorney General Holder appoint a special counsel to investigate and prosecute any and all crimes committed in connection with foreign campaign contributions during the 2008 presidential election cycle.
Or was your attack on the Supreme Court just words?
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How I wish something like this could get published on the front pages of our nations newspapers.
ReplyDeleteIt was just words. The future former one term president kind of said the end justifies the means in his speech. Whatever it took to get him elected was ok, because we were all waiting for him. Yep, just words. Words without meaning.
ReplyDeleteJust another glaringly incriminating piece of evidence screaming in our ears of just how corrupt our government/corporate system truly is. Forget about this week's Congressional dishonest testimony over the secret backroom deals concerning AIG. Our leaders are just brazen liars and crooks.
ReplyDeletePerhaps such a special counsel should investigate George Soros' donations to US campaigns; or other foreign nationals' donations to democrap campaigns such as to Obama's presidential campaign(given Obama disabled any source checking for contributions on his website during the 2008 campaign, that should be fertile ground for investigation).
ReplyDeleteSilly person! President Obama spoke of foreign _corporations_. He did not speak of foreign _nationals_, i.e. the sorts of people who donated to his campaign, and who are all just citizens of the world anyway.
ReplyDeleteDon't you see the difference?
You should file a complaint with the FEC if you believe the Obama campaign violated the foreign or corporate donation provisions. Keep us up to date on the FEC response to your complaint.
ReplyDeleteUm, Showbiz111, Soros is not a foreign national. He is just as entitled to participate in election campaigns as you are. I wonder what made you think otherwise.
ReplyDeleteUm, Dan, did you miss this bit? "The fact that the Federal Election Commission is not investigating the allegations necessitates a special counsel."
ReplyDeleteFEC was already asked to investigate and they took a pass.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.obamashrugged.com
All you contribution truthers must think it's a "Bolshevik plot" or something.
ReplyDeleteNothing to see here. Move along.
When I was a middle school teacher, I sent two of the usual suspects to the office for disturbing class. As they were going out the door, one of them told the other what they should say to the principal. The other one said--loudly enough for every one to hear--" They won't believe that, they know we're liars!" The class laughed. However, they were sent back to class with no action against them. Lying is OK today. I retired early.
ReplyDeleteMilhouse, the FEC has alreaDy been asked to investigate and conspicuously refused.
ReplyDeleteIf it was a "class action" type request, like a petition signed by as many as possible, would they be forced to investigate?
ReplyDeleteSDN, yes, that's precisely the point. That's why a special counsel is needed. If Obama really is worried about foreigners participating in US election campaigns, of course...
ReplyDeleteNo, Maggie, you seem to have no idea what the term "class action" means. And no, petitions, no matter how big, have no legal effect at all, and cannot force anybody to do anything.
ReplyDelete