Monday, October 18, 2010

So how's that attack on the Chamber working out for you?

I recently argued that it is wrong of Pres. Obama & Co. to make baseless accusations against the Chamber of Commerce. Turns out that it was not only wrong, but down right foolish:

Dems take in twice as much “foreign” money as Republicans

Over the weekend, some Democrats began questioning the White House strategy of demonizing third-party groups for potentially using foreign-raised money in political messaging. Now we know why. Apparently, the shrieking over foreign influence was yet another case of projection:

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate criticizing GOP groups for allegedly funneling foreign money into campaign ads have seen their party raise more than $1 million from political action committees affiliated with foreign companies.

House and Senate Democrats have received approximately $1.02 million this cycle from such PACs, according to an analysis compiled for The Hill by the Center for Responsive Politics. House and Senate GOP leaders have taken almost $510,000 from PACs on the same list.
Oh, where to start? “Pot/kettle” and “glass houses” easily come to mind. Too easily. Time and time again we are reminded that the current inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue believes that rules are for we silly little bitter clingers not for a man of Obama’s overwhelming stature. In this case, Ann Althouse states it perfectly:

And may I just add that I find the attacks on the Chamber of Commerce incredibly, absurdly out-of-touch with ordinary Americans. Not that I'm an expert on the mind of the ordinary Americans. I've been confined to the remote outpost of Madison, Wisconsin since the 1980s. But I do not believe that demonizing something as dull-sounding as the Chamber of Commerce is going to make any sense to people. The idea that the Chamber of Commerce is ruining America sounds like something a nutty conspiracy theorist would say.

A nutty conspiracy theorist or a really desperate (and unprincipled) politician.

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