[EL] Dick Morris's foreign money claims

[Joseph Birkenstock]

Steve - serious question: if foreign credit card contributions to the Obama campaign really are a serious problem, why weren't any violations identifed in the FEC's audit of the 2008 campaign?  (Rick links below to his blog post on the subject from April of this year, and - as I'm sure you already know - the report itself is available here: http://www.fec.gov/audits/2008/Obama_for_America/FinalAuditReportoftheCommission1206263.pdf.)
 
We know the auditors saw much more detailed information about Obama's unitemized contributions than is available to the public via FEC reports - so are you suggesting that there's more to these allegations now than there was the last time we saw this movie?  (And if so, what is it?)  
 
Or are you suggesting that the FEC's audit process needs to be beefed up? (And if so, how?)
 
________________________________
Joseph M. Birkenstock, Esq.
Caplin & Drysdale, Chtd.
One Thomas Circle, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 862-7836
www.capdale.com/jbirkenstock
*also admitted to practice in CA


________________________________

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu on behalf of Steve Hoersting
Sent: Mon 10/15/2012 10:46 AM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] Dick Morris's foreign money claims


Rick,


1. Are you calling for enhanced disclosure of contributions to authorized committees? -- because that is the allegation here. My memory is you're for enhanced disclosure of social welfare organizations and for removing the regulation at issue in Van Hollen v. FEC.

2. Things are evolving quickly. Is the GAI report evolving as quickly? Are you or others at, say, Politico, interested at all in the fact that the website Obama.com -- purportedly owned by a third-party and distributed throughout the world -- goes straight to the DONATE page at Obama Victory?

3. So, there is no "journalist[ic]" interest in "sensationalism," eh? Sticking to campaign finance and not Lindsay Lohan, I saw Palin's campaign-wardrobe budget lead the news for a full weekend one year. I saw sensationalism drive the news cycle for three days in October 2010: "The Chamber is using foreign money."

I think someone needs to yawn, grab another mug of coffee and get about the business of exposing Morris and Breitbart for the hacks they really are.  Easy enough to do, I'm sure...

...and so much more in keeping with the mission of the reform organizations and the bent of the nation's editorial boards.

All the best,

Steve



On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 10:24 AM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:


	Steve,
	Three things.
	1. I hope you will join me in supporting enhanced disclosure laws to ensure that foreign money is not secretly flowing into our elections.
	2. I believe the reason you don't see a lot of discussion of this on the editorial pages is that there's really nothing new in the GAI report.  Here's what I wrote about it in a recent Slate column <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/10/will_republicans_accept_if_barack_obama_defeats_mitt_romney_.html> : 
	

		This week features what conservative <http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/10/dubious-donations-peter-schweizer-speaks.php>  blogs are touting <http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/08/obama-bundler-tied-to-chinese-government/>  as an "explosive" new report <http://campaignfundingrisks.com/wp-content/themes/cfr/images/AmericaTheVulnerable.pdf>  suggesting that the Obama campaign is illegally accepting massive foreign contributions via credit card. The so-called proof comes from a number of foreign visits to the Obama campaign website, the lack of any federal requirement to publicly disclose contributions from individuals who give less than $200 overall, and the Obama campaign's supposed failure to use credit card verification tools to make sure the contributions are coming from inside the United States.  

		Never mind that the Obama campaign has denied similar reports in the past and has confirmed <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=33935>  it does use the verification tools; that an extensive Federal Election Commission audit of the 2008 Obama campaign found no evidence <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=33193>  of illegal foreign contributions; that foreign visits to the website does not mean that foreign contributions are being made; and that U.S. citizens (including those in the military) living abroad have the right to contribute to federal campaigns. The claims are a way to delegitimize the Obama campaign, even as Republican leaders in Congress stymie efforts to fix our broken disclosure laws <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/07/campaign_finance_after_citizens_united_is_worse_than_watergate_.html>  and argue for less disclosure of campaign finance information.
		


	3. Dick Morris lacks fundamental credibility with journalists and others.  So his sensationalism won't bring attention to an important issue.  In fact, it will convince journalists to ignore the issue.
	Rick
	





	On 10/15/12 7:14 AM, Steve Hoersting wrote:
	

		http://www.dickmorris.com/is-obama-running-on-foreign-money-dick-morris-tv-video-alert/
		

		We often argue about corruption -- what makes up corruption, what kinds of corruption matter, and which do not.

		Given Judge Kavanaugh's discussion in Bluman, I get the feeling that this matter -- yet to be proved or discredited in any news outlet I follow -- would far outrank unlimited IEs by the local Right to Life, the US Chamber or even the dreaded Kochs.
		

		If we do not see meaningful discussion of this issue here and in the editorial pages, will it be fair to conclude, as many have surmised, that campaign-finance purists are campaign-finance instrumentalists or partisans?

		Or is the relative silence just more evidence that retribution, or the prospect of it, is real?
		

		-- 
		Stephen M. Hoersting
		
		
		 
		
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	-- 
	Rick Hasen
	Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
	UC Irvine School of Law
	401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
	Irvine, CA 92697-8000
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	rhasen at law.uci.edu
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	http://electionlawblog.org <http://electionlawblog.org/> 
	Now available: The Voting Wars: http://amzn.to/y22ZTv
	
	




-- 
Stephen M. Hoersting





-- 
Stephen M. Hoersting



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