Ezra Klein defends the US Chamber of Commerce, attacks Dems, doesn't know the word "fungible"

[brentspeak]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/10/tom_toles_is_worth_a_thousand_50.html

The Democrats' attack on foreign campaign contributions is pretty much bunk. The Chamber of Commerce, like many large organizations with an international presence, takes in money overseas. It also spends money here. That does not mean it spends foreign money here. As far as I can tell, no one who has http://factcheck.org/2010/10/foreign-money-really/">seriously looked into this thinks it's any more than some election-season hardball from the Democrats.

By now, it should be pretty clear that FactCheck.org is not exactly the neutral, unbiased Fourth Estate "factcheck" that it purports to be. In just the past couple of years, it has produced several tortured, http://www.factcheck.org/2010/05/naftacafta-blame-game/">defenses of NAFTA (an EPI study is automatically discounted by FactCheck because EPI receives "partial funding from labor unions", but the pro-NAFTA study conducted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace study is taken seriously by FactCheck -- despite the corporate-sponsored Carnegie Foundation's mission of promoting free trade treaties and globalization in general.)

Klein cites FactCheck's defense of the US Chamber as the Final Word on the subject. And FactCheck's reasoning that the US Chamber of Commerce is not using its foreign donations to illegally fund anti-Democratic attack ads? Why, the spokesperson for the Chamber says it's not true! End of story.

Uh, the whole point of of the controversy is that AmCham itself is unable or unwilling to prove that its foreign donations have not made their way into its general funds for political ads. Money is fungible; the money the Chamber received from some billionaire Chinese sweatshop magnate could just as easily have been interchanged with the money it received from some clueless Rush Limbaugh believer and used to produce some misleading ad against Russ Feingold. Precisely because AmCham refuses to open its books, the accusation that it might very well be breaking federal campaign finance laws will always remain perfectly valid.

[dennis4868]

1. Is there a journalist alive today....

that actually investigates things? Do they all now rely on FACTCHECK.org and if they say "nothing to see here...move on" we end the story?

[gratuitous]

2. Ezra, as far as he goes, is right (sort of)

But it takes a particularly credulous, perhaps even naive, person to take the Chamber of Commerce at its word. When the last 40 years have seen the worst excesses of stove-piping that have been seen in more than a century of the dirtiest of American politics (Remember how Bill Clinton supposedly gave aid and comfort to the Commies when he was at Oxford because he may have attended a protest against the Vietnam war there?), it's not all that far a stretch to say that Chamber donations, which all go into the same pot*, may indeed be funding their political advertising. I'm disinclined to take the feeble "none of your business" protestations of the accused to be the gospel truth. Klein is apparently a far more trusting soul.

*Ba dum cha!

[leveymg]

3. Corporate money should be kept out of elections. Period. Impossible to separate US and foreign cos

Look at Fox News, a division of NewsCorp. which was originally the plaything of Australian-born media magnate Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch makes no secret that he's used company money to affect the outcome of a number of elections around the world. Murdoch happens to be a Naturalized US Citizen, and NewsCorp has its HQ in NYC and is traded on the NYSE. Ordinarily, that would make it a "U.S.-based multinational."

But, Saudi Arabia-based Kingdom Holdings owns a big chunk of NewsCorp stock, as do many corporations and banks that are also largely-owned by the Saudis. Not one of these stock owners have more than a ten percent share, so technically NewsCorp is not "controlled" by the Saudis. But, the fact remains that the Saudi Royals have enormous influence over NewsCorp policies, including its corporate giving to political parties and causes.

So, when we look at the American Chamber, we see its principal members and Board are controlled by various individual companies and groups of companies. Few if any of these companies are truly "American" anymore in their ownership, influence, and agendas.

They should all be banned from making political contributions, which means Congress has to pass legislation banning corporate funding. But, that should have done that last year, because it won't happen next.

[DJ13]

4. ....and another defender of corporations shows himself....

The lines between the elitists and the rest of us come into sharper focus.

[Winterblues]

5. Foreign money goes into their general fund and the general fund is used for political ads

There is no way to differentiate what money is used to pay for what if it is all coming from the same fund...IMO this is nothing more than a scheme to allow anyone that wants, to launder all the money they need to launder...Drug Cartels or Chinese, it all goes into the same pot...and no one gets to know who is adding to that pot...

[Bitwit1234]

6. Wait a minute this company is so honest they take

this dollar....cause it is foreign and puts in in this bank. then they take that dollar cause it is US and puts it in another bank...gee wilkers jumpy ho hos..does any body believe that.

[Hawkowl]

7. Ezra Klein can suck it . nt

[librechik]

8. AHA! Finally, a real "professional left"ie.

THIS is what they sound like Gibbs. They are YOU.

[tsuki]

9. Anyone who has ever opened a joint bank account knows Ezra

Klein is full of shit.

The Chamber knew full well what they were doing. With two accounts, the money could be tracked. Co-mingled funds cannot. They can make all kinds of claims, and with their propagandists, can muddy the waters.

Ezra Klein, Propagandist of the Month Award.

[brentspeak]

10. s/kick

:kick:

[Rex]

11. I'm surprised that this is an actual problem for Repukes.

Usually they just plow over anything hypocritical and move on. Must be touching a real sensitive nerve with them...good! Keep it up!

Repukes are fucking Commie lovers! And we have proof!

Pass it on!

[AtomicKitten]

12. PolitiFact calls the charge that the US COC is funneling foreign money

only http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/oct/11/barack-obama/president-barack-obama-says-foreign-money-coming-u/">half true.

They also call Pres Obama shout-out at the SOTU on the Citizens United http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/27/barack-obama/obama-says-supreme-court-ruling-allows-foreign-com/">barely true.

**Obviously** (except to you) people are all over the map on this. But here you are again impugning Ezra Klein's character because you don't agree with him. That's political poison and it's so very tiresome.

[brentspeak]

13. So you're pro-US Chamber of Commerce, pro-Ezra Klein, and anti-Obama and anti-Dem on this

Is that what we can take from your post?

[AtomicKitten]

15. It is your character assassination based on flawed analysis that is anti-Democratic. nt

[BzaDem]

18. You equate disagreement with an argument with being "pro" or "anti" someone?

:rofl:

[bullwinkle428]

14. So, AK, are you now the "Ultimate Arbiter" of which particular issues

allow people to be "all over the map", and which ones demand ultimate lock-step obedience?

[AtomicKitten]

16. The ease with which some comply with the OP's character assassinations de jour is breathtaking. nt

[Hosnon]

17. Is it just me or is "fungible" going to appear on that end-of-year list of buzz words? nt.