Bush and 527s

Bush approves messages which paint John Kerry as saying one thing and doing another. The foundation for another Bush presidency is not his own failed record, but Kerry's so-called "flip-flopping."

In the coverage of the recent "Swift Boat Liars" ads, Bush had this to say on Larry King Live (August 12, 2004) when he was given the opportunity to denounce the ads:

"Well, I say they ought to get rid of all those 527s, independent expenditures that have flooded the airwaves."

[...]

"There have been millions of dollars spent up until this point in time. I signed a law that I thought would get rid of those, and I called on the senator to -- let's just get anybody who feels like they got to run to not do so."

"Well, I haven't seen the ad, but what I do condemn is these unregulated, soft-money expenditures by very wealthy people, and they've said some bad things about me. I guess they're saying bad things about him. And what I think we ought to do is not have them on the air. I think there ought to be full disclosure. The campaign funding law I signed I thought was going to get rid of that. But evidently the Federal Election Commission had a different view."

Of course, the bill he signed was the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill, a signing for which no public ceremony was held (supposedly to spite Bush's now-all-of-a-sudden-buddy Senator John McCain). Bush had this to say about the bill at the time he signed it (March 27, 2002):

"I also have reservations about the constitutionality of the broad ban on issue advertising, which restrains the speech of a wide variety of groups on issues of public import in the months closest to an election."

Bush opposed McCain-Feingold then, and feigns disdain for the groups that support that kind of advertising now.