In the News
Reason: How in the World Did a Case About Speech Restrictions Become a Battle Over Government Censorship?
By Jacob SullumIn a recent New Yorker article about Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 case in which the Supreme Court overturned restrictions on political speech by corporations, Jeffrey Toobin focuses on the notorious book question during the first round of oral arguments: Given that Congress had prohibited corporations (including nonprofit advocacy groups) from airing TV and radio ads mentioning federal candidates close to an election, could it also stop them from publishing books aimed at boosting or tearing down a candidate during the campaign season?
CCP
The Ricketts Plan and the Spin Machine
By Sarah LeeMuch has been made of the conflicting reports regarding the so-called “Ricketts Plan, ” a purported commissioning by billionaire Joe Ricketts, founder of brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, to fund super PAC attack ads detailing new information regarding President Obama and the media’s old friend, The Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Independent groups
WSJ: Centrist Censor
By JAMES TARANTOOur friend Doug Schoen, the Democratic pollster, is a political centrist, ideologically much closer to the post-1994 Bill Clinton than to Barack Obama. That makes all the more troubling his advocacy of government censorship of political speech, the kind of expression that is at the core of First Amendment protection.
Roll Call: How Citizens United Is Affecting Campaigns
By Stuart RothenbergThe Citizens United decision (and the subsequent SpeechNow.org decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals) did dramatically alter the campaign finance system, but it did not lead Exxon Mobil, JPMorgan Chase or Pfizer to spend tens of millions of dollars to elect its preferred candidates to the House and Senate.
Roll Call: Super PACs Shift Focus to Congressional Races
By Eliza Newlin CarneySuper PACs have jumped feet first into Congressional races in recent weeks, the latest public disclosures show, with the conservative groups Club for Growth Action and FreedomWorks for America leading the way.
TPM: Pro-Obama Super PAC Uses Gingrich, Perry To Go After Romney’s Bain Record
The pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action has created a new web video which uses attacks from Mitt Romney’s rivals during the Republican primary to attack Romney’s record at Bain Capital. “Somebody who’s very wealthy comes in, takes over your company, takes out all the cash, and leaves behind the unemployment, ” Newt Gingrich says in one clip used in the video. “I think that’s not a model we want to advocate, and I don’t think any conservative wants to get caught defending that kind of model.”
TPM: Short Stacks For Obama PACs: Priorities USA Lagging Badly
By Benjy SarlinPriorities USA, the Democratic super PAC tasked with re-electing President Obama, raised a paltry $1.6 million in April, lagging far behind Republican powerhouses now threatening to tip the fundraising balance in the general election to Mitt Romney.
NY Times: Subtler Entry From Masters of Attack Ads
By JEREMY W. PETERSYet what Mr. McCarthy and Crossroads have produced is not the kind of searing denunciation of President Obama that their track records would suggest. More soft-pedal than Swift Boat, the 60-second advertisement, complete with special effects, is a deeply researched, delicately worded story of a struggling family; its relatively low-key tone is all the more striking, coming at a point in the campaign when each side is accusing the other of excessive negativity.
CBS News: Conservative super PAC takes softer tone against Obama
By Stephanie CondonThe advent of super PACs, the conventional wisdom goes, should mean that this election cycle will be nastier than ever. The latest ad from Crossroads GPS, however, shows that independent groups won’t always turn to vicious attacks simply because they can.
The Hill: Pro-Obama super-PAC uses Gingrich, Perry’s attacks on Bain against Romney,
By Christian Heinze and Geneva SandsA super-PAC supporting President Obama is using Mitt Romney’s GOP rivals’ words against him in a new Web ad.
Hoover Institution: Corporations Are People, Too
By Richard A. EpsteinJeffrey Toobin’s recent exposé in the New Yorker takes aim at the Roberts Supreme Court for its controversial decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which struck down the key provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act prohibiting “corporations from running television commercials for or against Presidential candidates for thirty days before primaries.” To Toobin, Citizens United was the Supreme Court’s illicit gift to corporations; it recalls the worst excesses of the “Gilded Age, ” a time when, Toobin claims (falsely), the Supreme Court “barred most attempts by the government to ameliorate the harsh effects of market forces.”
SCOTUS/Judiciary
NY Times Blog: Justice Stevens Talks Bush v Gore
By ANDREW ROSENTHALIn the two years since he retired from the Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens has set a new standard, or at least created a new model, for life after the bench: The lone voice crying in the wilderness, publicly challenging the faulty decisions of the institution he left behind.
Candidates and parties
Washington Post: President Barack Obama’s double standard
By Crystal WrightWhen the New York Times published a story last week about a GOP plan to run negative ads connecting Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his race-baiting sermons, the Obama race machine pounced.
Huffington Post: DSCC Warns Super PAC Donors To ‘Wake Up’
By Sam Stein and Michael McAuliffGuy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, figures the odds of preventing Mitch McConnell from taking Harry Reid’s gavel have improved over the last six months, to the point where he now says Democrats have a 50/50 shot at retaining the majority.
