About That Foreign Money

For the last couple of weeks the Democrats have been telling us that foreign money is buying the election. The President on down plus the Democratic National Party and MoveOn are hammering the point home. The problem is that it is not valid. This has been fact-checked by all of the major news services plus network TV and the New York Times. They all say that foreign money is not a factor. In fact, even if the most frequent target, the US Chamber of Commerce, was using foreign money it would be inconsequential. Their foreign dues only amount to a few hundred thousand and they are spending millions. So, why are the Democrats still talking about foreign money?

The President first brought the subject up during his State of the Union address. He was referring to the Citizens United verdict which had nothing to do with foreign money. Cameras picked up one of the justices shaking his head and mouthing, "That isn't true." as Obama made his claim. Again, the fact-checkers ruled against the President.

So why is he still saying it? I can think of several reasons.

The obvious one is that he really believes it. This means that the President, a former lecturer on constitutional law, does not under stand the law and no one on his staff is willing to correct him. Instead they are following his lead. This does not reflect well on the White House but it is the most sympathetic reason I can think of but they get worse.

I have seen the suggestion that the White House is readying the party for a major setback. This theory says that they are already introducing a boogey-man who they will be able to blame in November. ("It wasn't us, it was all of that foreign money!") If we take this theory to its conclusion then the anti-foreign money ads that are playing are not meant to influence the election. They are aimed at the post-election.

Another theory is that the Democrats are trying to tie foreign money to outsourcing in an effort to paint the Republicans as anti-job. ("Those dirty foreigners are trying to buy the election so that the nasty Republicans will give American jobs to dirty, nasty foreigners.") This certainly ties in with all of the out-sourcing ads that the Democrats have run against Republicans. It isn't very pleasant to think of the party of toleration as being so blatantly anti-foreigner but that's how many of their ads sound.

The final theory is that this is a long-term strategy to cut the Republicans off from their support. In the 2008 election the amount that Barack Obama spent was matched by the amount that MoveOn and other special interest groups spent. The Citizens United case gave the Republicans a chance to level the playing field. It could be that the attack against foreign money is really a push to open up the donor list. A law to do this failed to pass earlier this year. Vice-President Biden has called for the Camber of Commerce to open its donor list to prove that no foreigners contributed.

Once the donor's names are known, they can be targeted. The Democrats have shown themselves willing to use the DOJ and the IRS against political enemies. This is in keeping with Chicago-style politics.

No matter which theory is correct, the Democrats are telling outright lies during an election campaign.