West Wing Stars Come Out For Employee Free Choice

Blanche, Ben and what makes their world go round

I'm guessing these guys won't be doing any benefit appearances for quasi-Democrat Blanche Lincoln (AR), who has very firmly gone over to the Dark Side. It wasn't enough that Lincoln joined Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to push for an end to the estate tax-- on behalf of the Walton family which has helped finance her miserable and shameful political career. She then announced to her Chamber of Commerce buddies that they could count on her to join the Republican Party filibuster of the exact same Employee Free Choice Act that she voted for in 2007. Funny what a few million dollars can do.

Political hacks like Blanche Lincoln belong in prison for taking bribes, not in the U.S. Senate polluting our democracy with criminal ethics. Needless to say, the ultra-corrupt Lincoln, whose career has basically been based on taking corporate money and then voting against the interests to ordinary American working families, is not a co-sponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act, although activists behind the bill think you can get her to change her mind. Good luck with that. One of the most corrupt members of Congress, Lincoln will probably be one of the least likely senators to ever sign off on anything like this; but try. On the other hand, there are scores of members of Congress who actually hate the culture of corruption that sleazy characters like Lincoln thrive on. Remember this:

Special interests pump millions of dollars into elections, giving them more influence over our political system than the rest of us. Until we fix our broken campaign finance laws, these special interests will block real change on issue after issue.

Especially as our nation faces an unprecedented economic crisis, now is the worst time for our politicians to spend their time begging for campaign contributions from the very special interests that got us into this mess.

We need a clean system of campaign financing-- one where politicians pay attention to regular people, the very small-dollar donors who made such an impact in 2008.

Reforming the system will never be Congress’s first priority until a grassroots movement gives politicians a choice: You can have our money or special interest money, but not both. Now is the time to push for this change, and that’s why the donor strike is important.

...The bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act was offered last Congress, and was offered again this year by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Reps. John Larson (D-CT) and Walter Jones (R-NC).

Under this legislation, congressional candidates who raise a threshold number of small-dollar donations would qualify for a chunk of funding—several hundred thousand dollars for House, millions for many Senate races. If they accept this funding, they can’t raise big-dollar donations. But they can raise contributions up to $100, which would be matched four to one by a central fund. Reduced fees for TV airtime is also an element of this bill. This would create an incentive for politicians to opt into this system and run people-powered campaigns.

They have a great tool to help you identify your members of Congress and then to contact them about real campaign finance reform. It really is the root of all political evil. Now the movie:



And if that doesn't do it for you, how about something a little less pop and a little more populist? Ads like this should make hacks like Blanche Lincoln, Arlen Specter and David Boren realize that working families are onto them and their free ride days are long long gone: