U. S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donahue said it best about the DISCLOSE Act. Never one to shy away from the attention grabbing quote going back to his days at the American Trucking Associations (that’s right, it’s plural), Mr. Donahue qualifies for our first federal Quote of the Day.
From The Hill’s On The Money Blog, by Jay Heflin:
The fact that this assault to the First Amendment is being considered as millions are desperately looking for work is a complete outrage. Despite their best efforts, there is no back room dark enough, no partisan motive strong enough, and no cynicism profound enough to barter away Americans’ freedom of speech.
As we mentioned posted yesterday, the DISCLOSE Act is a backroom deal of the most nefarious kind to limit what groups outside labor unions and selected others can do and spend on political campaigns, and Mr. Donahue nailed it in the second sentence. (Wasn’t the new regime going to end backroom deals?) We do have one concern. Whether deserved or not, the Chamber itself has had a history of flirting with the forces in D.C. not necessarily enamored with free markets and free ideas, as long as it and its members got what it needed. Crony capitalism as it’s called. Being “pro business” doesn’t mean a politician is for free markets, liberty and constitutionally limited government.
Finally, however, some are waking up to the reality of what happens when you swim with the sharks and lay with the lions too long. At first, you get a bit of a high — untouched in the proximity of such man eaters — thinking you actually can get along with them, cut your own deals, and leave each other to pursue separate agendas. But, in the end, they still are sharks and lions and they have their own instinctive agendas — to rule the seas and jungles. When they want their dinner, they don’t care who you are or what you’ve done together in the past. They need to be satisfied and, if you are in their way, and inevitably everyone is, you will be eaten because what they eat is all the same to them.
[...] We’ve kept you updated on the so-called DISCLOSE Act over the last couple of days. The hideousness of the bill’s free-speech restrictions and its partisan purpose are easily understood simply by reading no further than the sponsors line (see Eliza Carney at National Journal): U.S. Representative Chris Van Hollan (D-Md.) and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the current House Democrat Campaign Committee chair and the two-time Democrat Senate Campaign Committee chair, respectively. As the Wall Street Journal reports, this bill is Senator Schumer’s tool to take over as Majority Leader. [...]
[...] MoveOn.org also is in this game with its own echo television spot. This from the group that takes uncountable sums from the likes of George Soros and the same left who accuses anyone of disagreeing with them as questioning their patriotism. Even the New York Times has disproven the charge. No matter to the White House, which now includes the Chamber of Commerce, once a health care ally, on its enemies list. [...]