Politics: Dirty Dog Democrats
Norquist, Grover G.
|~*Jlimi~! by Grover G. Norqu~st Dirty Dog Democrats In their desperation, some are acting like gangsters. O n May 3, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign...
...It's about winning the House...
...Patrick Kennedy and Dick Gephardt have indicated there are no rules in this knife fight...
...Donors respond well to this...
...The Democratic legislative strategy has fared no better...
...In a New York Times op-ed, Democratic partisan Paul Begala condemned the racketeering lawsuit as "wrong ethically, legally and politically...
...Patrick Kennedy, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), filed a civil lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against Republican Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas...
...Conservative groups are preparing counter-suits...
...And why attack on such flimsy pretense...
...It's politics...
...All other parties do report contributions above $2oo...
...FEC and IRS complaints were targeted at Gingrich's political groups...
...It is true that Bill Clinton's job approval rating was at 62 percent in a May 26 Fox News poll...
...It is not about ethics, or the law...
...Further votes are scheduled on IRA and 4ol(k) expansion, inheritance (death) tax abolition, and new educational savings accounts...
...Communist Party from Federal Election Commission requirements that donations to political parties be publicly reported...
...and a ban on future FCC-imposed taxes such as the Gore tax now included in phone bills...
...Kennedy, who was made chairman of the DCCC for his surname rather than his smarts, is not allowed to make a move without Minority Leader Richard Gephardt's approval...
...The lawsuit is also a sign of desperation...
...Don't stop until they give up, and withdraw the suit...
...Here then are the reasons behind the attack: to drive up legal bills, to distract DeLay and his allies, and to leave the charges deliberately unresolved so they can be used politically...
...The stakes are very high...
...DeLay has not allowed a Democratic procedural vote to pass in two years...
...Another goal is "donor suppression...
...George Stephanopoulos, who had a very flexible conscience when he worked with Bill Clinton, called the lawsuit "stupid politics and sad civics" from his perch on ABC's "This Week...
...Their polling numbers looked good...
...N The American Spectator . J w t y/A~ g u s t 2 o o o 79...
...To date the Democrats have failed to morph DeLay into Gingrich...
...In May he lined up the votes to pass Permanent Normal Trading Relations with China that was opposed by the Democratic leadership...
...The a>page filing claims that DeLay has engaged in "systematic extortion--to coerce the contribution of millions of dollars to Republicans and to intimidate those inclined to support Democrats...
...Thus the Democrats were reduced to trying to get the Clinton Justice Department to go after DeLay...
...It's unlikely that Richard Gephardt will win permission to look at the list of donors to such groups as the Republican Majority Issues Committee, run by DeLay ally Karl Gallant, a former Right to Work activist...
...The Democrats must pay a price for this aggression, or they will raise the stakes," Horowitz advises...
...The response of the COP caucus to this assault will determine if the Republicans will maintain their majority...
...G. Robert Blakey, a visiting law GROVER G. NORQUIST is president of Americans for Tax Reform...
...It's war...
...If there are coattails this year, they won't help Patrick Kennedy retake the House...
...Bill Clinton's job approval ratings were high and were expected to help Vice President A1 Gore...
...If Judge Jackson treats the Kennedy suit as legitimate, then conservatives will launch their own fishing expeditions in the bowels of the AFLCIO, the Teamsters, the Sierra Club, and the private finances of the billionaire tobacco trial lawyers...
...As whip, DeLay has frustrated No matter how frivolous, a case like this can take months to resolve...
...Such lists are private...
...They had the White House and Lincoln Bedroom for fundraising...
...abolishing the 3 percent federal excise tax on phones (first imposed in 1898 to pay for the Spanish-American War...
...This attack is thus part of the Democratic Party's campaign to retake the House of Representatives...
...The establishment press spent two years explaining why Republicans have to abandon the tax issue...
...Gephardt, you may be from Missouri, but you're no Harry Truman...
...He urges the COP to "make the Democrats' lives hell...
...when asked who they thought would win this fall, 52 percent said Bush and 29 Gore...
...To appear "fair," Gingrich made no changes to the committee's COP members upon becoming speaker...
...In a GBS/New York Times poll, Bush led 47-39 among all adults...
...What the Democrats are counting on, however, is that some donors will balk at contributing if they think Democrats will be back in power next year and know of their support for a conservative group...
...This time around the COP has avoided the mistake Gingrich made in keeping a weak sister on the Ethics Committee...
...Back in 1996, too many Republicans assumed Gingrich was invincible and failed to see the Democrats' "ethics" attacks as politics by other means aimed not just at Gingrich, but at their majority...
...In May Zogby had Bush over Gore 46-41 among likely voters...
...Democrats filed 84 ethics charges against Gingrich and in the end none stuck.(The only blood drawn from Gingrich was the result of an error committed by attorneys in the course of the House investigation of complaints that had little to do with the orignal filings...
...professor at the University of Michigan who helped write the 197o RICO statute, said: "This is politics, not law...
...Fox News's last seven polls show Bush winning over Gore, including 4 z39 in the May ~6 poll...
...As for the generic congressional ballot-whether voters plan to vote for a Republican or Democrat for Congress-Fox News had Republicans holding a 4239 lead in May...
...By dividing the August 1999 tax cut into separate pieces of legislation, Speaker Hastert forced Democrats to vote on the marriage penalty tax repeal...
...Still, the case is now before Judge Penfield Jackson of Microsoft fame, and no matter how frivolous, a case like this can take months to resolve...
...It boils down to the absurd charge that Republican fundraising is or should be illegal...
...the Democrat playbook that Gephardt bragged about to tile Washington Post last July, when he promised to block legislative action, create gridlock, and then run against a "do nothing" Congress...
...DeLay's lawyers Ed Bethune, a former Arkansas congressman who also defended Speaker Gingrich from similar attacks, and James Bopp, Jr., a campaign finance lawy'er who has won dozens of campaign law cases on First Amendment grounds, both say the Democratic suit is without merit and unlikely to go anywhere...
...Gal]ant, one of America's brightest and toughest political operatives, has welcomed the frivolous lawsuit, publicly thanking Patrick Kennedy as contributions have increased since the suit was filed...
...The world has noticed that Bill Clinton's IRS has audited the National Rifle Association, the Heritage Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste, Paula Jones, and now Juanita Broaddriek...
...The lawsuit asks that Democratic Party operatives be allowed access to lists of donors to Republican-leaning organizations...
...Trevor Potter, a Republican who voted to expand the powers of the FEC beyond Congress's intention, is no longer on the commission to give the Democrats the fourth vote they need to attack Republican and conservative groups...
...Today, the committee's Republicans are all party loyalists and congressmen from safe districts who won't be bullied into voting against the facts...
...Wanna be next...
...It turned out Nancy Johnson of Connecticut didn't have the backbone to withstand the pressure her local newspaper and the New York Times exerted on her to find Gingrich guilty of"something...
...J ust as generals are always preparing to fight the last war, Democrats are trying to re-create their success in demonizing Newt Gingrich...
...Defend Tom DeLay," Horowitz exhorted them in a recent issue...
...lt's going to be a long hot summer...
...And the Democrats planned that the year 2ooo would be dominated by their agenda: Medicare coverage for prescription drugs, HMO regulation, gun control, and education funding--all winning issues, the polls said, for Democrats...
...Democrats hoped they'd listen...
...The press hammered Gingrich's defenders, but promised positive coverage to any Republican who criticized Gingrich...
...There were many takers...
...Still it is entirely believable that some corporations would be wary of contributing if Bill Clinton's IRS, OSHA, and EPA were able to peruse the donor lists of groups run by DeLay's friends and allies...
...By contrast, 56 percent had a favorable view of George W. Bush, and only 34 percent unfavorable...
...It's about who will set the agenda...
...One big difference between the war on Gingrich and the war on DeLay is that the Republican caucus has taken to heart the advice of David Horowitz, whose action newsletter "The War Room" goes out to all COP members and key activists...
...In the past, Republicans would trail on the generic ballot until the last months of the campaign...
...He has stopped the Democratic drive for gun control in the House...
...a five-year extension of the moratorium on Internet taxation...
...Years ago it was the left that argued to keep the NAACP's donor lists private to protect donors from harassment...
...Last year the Democrats were loudly confident they'd gain an additional six seats to win back the House...
...He was the first member of the COP leadership to call on President Clinton to resign...
...And whether they deserve to...
...Nor will they tolerate the filing of false ethics charges for political purposes...
...Wisely (surprisingly) they didn't...
...The Republican controlled House also voted to expand free trade with sub-Saharan Africa and China, reminding voters that tariffs are just taxes at the border...
...The Democrats know this and act as if they believed it...
...The Democrats are saying we are effective and that they fear us," Gallant says...
...Similarly, Republican members of the Federal Election Commission have been more seriously chosen...
...Asked to produce evidence for such serious charges, Kennedy was reduced to handing out 33 news clips, including articles by writers for the Nation and Mother Jones...
...But in response to the question of whether Americans have a "generally favorable or unfavorable opinion" of Clinton, the numbers told 78 Ju l y/A u g us t 2 o o o _9 The American Spectator another story: a 54-41 unfavorable to favorable ratio...
...Tom DeLay is a wise target...
...The left successfully fought to exempt the U.S...
...My guess is it will be out of court quicker than a flash of summer lightning...
...Instead, Republicans have successfully moved a tax-cut agenda through the House...
...Democrat demands for more federal spending on health care haven't made headlines...
...On this score Republicans have consistently polled ahead since last September...
...Why go nuclear...
...When even this failed, they launched the RICO suit...
Vol. 33 • July 2000 • No. 6
