Once More on 527s

One thing that is really ticking me off is that John McCain wrote the McCain-Feingold bill, John Kerry voted for it, and George Bush signed it into law. And yet all three are complaining about 527s, with all three saying the groups are acting illegally. But they are not. All three know the law, all three were instrumental in putting the law on the books, and yet all three seem to not know that there is nothing whatsoever in the bill that makes the actions of these groups illegal.

Before the law was even passed -- I remember it at the time -- there was a great deal of talk about how this would open the gates for third party groups to take over once soft money was restricted from the campaigns themselves. For example -- and the lawyer's name might be familiar to some of you, as he's the one who recently resigned from the Bush campaign because he offered legal advice to a 527 -- the Washington Post published an article on April 1, 2001, the day before the Senate passed the McCain-Feingold bill, which included this excerpt (taken from the Senate's record, where it was entered in on April 2):

"The world under McCain-Feingold is a world where the loudest voices in the process are third-party groups." Republican election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg said. "My fear is that the parties will just wither and essentially people will be motivated to get out to vote by the groups which champion the issues they care about."

...

"What we are doing is destroying the party system in America," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin Frost (Tex.). "The political parties would be neutered, and third-party groups would run the show."

Now, I think, as many people did, that the concerns of parties withering away was overstated. But the concern of third parties being loud voices was not overstated, and was well-known, and they all knew that McCain-Feingold did nothing to prevent it. And now Bush, Kerry, and McCain are crying foul? Please, spare us your crocodile tears, all of you.