Democrats Slander Chamber of Commerce Contributions

It all began in the State of the Union address. President Obama deliberately misrepresented the opinion issued by the Supreme Court on free speech and campaign contributions and Justice Alito was shown in the chamber mouthing "that's not true". Obama is touted as a Constitutional scholar. He is said to have taught Constitutional Law on the college level in Chicago. One would think as President, Obama would be truthful and not willfully lie about a Supreme Court decision simply because he doesn't agree. He is suppose to be above calling out the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address. Perhaps the change Obama intended to bring to the White House was petty ideological politics instead of governing for the greater good.

Obama has taken to the road to campaign for floundering Democratic candidates and is directly calling out the Chamber of Commerce as the bad guys. He accuses them of using foreign contributions to fund campaign ads as they advocate for business-friendly candidates. It is a lie. Though the Chamber of Commerce has international members, they are completely competent and above board in keeping the monies separate. Even The New York Times couldn't find wrongdoing.

From Reason Hit and Run:
The explanation for how these interest groups have become such powerful players this year includes not just the Supreme Court's ruling in January in the Citizens United case that struck down restrictions on corporate spending on elections, but also a constellation of other legal developments since 2007 that have gradually loosened strictures governing campaign financing and the regulation of third-party groups.

Add in the competitive political environment, with Republicans ascendant, the Obama administration struggling to break the perception that it is hostile to business, and the resulting stew is potent.

In the end, though, it is the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that remains the touchstone.

Let's think. What happened in 2007? Oh, right. The Democrats took over the Congress and the committees doing the regulating and making the rules and writing the laws. Not to mention, controlling the purse strings.

As printed in The Wall Street Journal:

Since the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v. FEC, Democrats in Congress have been trying to pass legislation to repeal the First Amendment for business, though not for unions. Having failed on that score, they're now turning to legal and political threats. Funny how all of this outrage never surfaced when the likes of Peter Lewis of Progressive insurance and George Soros helped to make Democrats financially dominant in 2006 and 2008.

Chairman Max Baucus of the powerful Senate Finance Committee got the threats going last month when he asked Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate if certain tax exempt 501(c) groups had violated the law by engaging in too much political campaign activity. Lest there be any confusion about his targets, the Montana Democrat flagged articles focused on GOP-leaning groups, including Americans for Job Security and American Crossroads.

Mr. Baucus was seconded last week by the ostensibly nonpartisan campaign reform groups Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, which asked the IRS to investigate whether Crossroads is spending too much money on campaigns. Those two outfits swallowed their referee whistle in the last two campaign cycles, but they're all worked up now that Republicans might win more seats. Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) affiliate of American Crossroads supported by Karl Rove, is a target because it has spent millions already in this election cycle.How very amusing. Democrats are newly indignant about the origins of campaign contributions after Obama raised a record breaking amount of money from all corners everywhere in 2008. Where was the concern for scrutiny then? As Michelle Malkin points out: Mimicking the Center for American Progress attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Soros suck-up-in-chief himself accused Republicans last week of benefiting from “money from foreign corporations” — which liberals claim the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling into political ads. Democrat clown prince Al Franken is leading a Senate inquisition against the Chamber. Endangered Democrat candidates across the country are dutifully parroting the line.

Malkin points out even The New York Times writes that the Chamber of Commerce does not use foreign money in campaign contributions : The New York Times concluded on Friday that “there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents. In fact, the controversy over the Chamber of Commerce financing may say more about the Washington spin cycle — where an Internet blog posting can be quickly picked up by like-minded groups and become political fodder for the president himself — than it does about the vagaries of campaign finance.”

Ed Gillespie responds to the lies of Team Obama: Gillespie accused Obama and Democrats of hypocrisy on campaign spending. He raised undocumented spending by liberal groups in 2010 and in past election cycles that benefited Democrats.

"In the West Wing, apparently, the American principle is that you're guilty until proven innocent, and our highest elected and appointed officials are there to hurl the charges," he wrote. "It is telling that this White House equates ads that threaten its hold on power as a threat to democracy. They're not actually one and the same."

So, with this new found concern about all the money flowing into campaigns, two years after he was elected, we have yet to be told where all the Obama campaign money came from - all those contributions credited to pre-paid credit cards, and the like. Where is the transparency in all that? Two years later, still no answers.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, especially when it's all a desperate attempt to make the Republicans look dishonest. Team Obma won't get away with their thuggish Chicago pol behavior any more.