Hypocrisy is the kindest word that comes to mind while watching the Bush-Cheney campaign's video attack on Democratic front-runner John Kerry. The unidentified female voice in the video - which is being distributed over the Internet - suggests that Kerry is beholden to special interests that have contributed to his campaign and labels the senator "unprincipled." That's a curious charge for George Bush and Dick Cheney to make.
As it turns out, President Bush has accepted more in direct contributions from lobbyists in one year than Kerry did over 15 years, according to an analysis by Public Citizen, a nonpartisan group that promotes clean government. Among the biggest donors giving at least $100,000 each to the president's re-election effort, 53 are lobbyists. They've collected a total of $6.5-million.
That's a mountain of money compared with the $640,000 given to Kerry, an amount collected over a decade and a half. The Bush-Cheney video is correct when it says that Kerry has gotten more from individual lobbyists than any other senator, but the claim neglects an important fact - Kerry does not accept money from political action committees. When PAC contributions are thrown in, Kerry ranks near the bottom of the list of senators for the total amount received.
Kerry has raised the issue of special-interest money buying political influence in his campaign against Bush, so he should expect his own record to be scrutinized. But this attack strays so far from reality that it can't be taken seriously. As for the suggestion that the Bush-Cheney campaign is more principled, that's like Janet Jackson claiming she is a prude.
Among the top contributors to the first Bush campaign were electric utility lobbyists who were then allowed to help write energy policies that gutted the Clean Air Act. Other generous donors are former Republican lawmakers and Bush administration employees, who switched to lobbying for, among other things, contracts with the Department of Homeland Security. The list goes on and on. The pharmaceutical industry has been particularly generous with the Bush campaign, and it came out smelling like a rose in the new Medicare prescription drug program, which forbids the government from negotiating lower drug prices.
"In modern times, no president or presidential candidate has come close to being as indebted to special interests as the current occupant of the White House," concluded Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen.
Given the situation, one might expect the Bush-Cheney campaign to change the subject when influence peddling comes up. But that would imply that the president and vice president feel some shame or remorse for their fundraising practices.
