Edwards claims mantle of grassroots hero, distorts and dismisses Dean achievements

I got an email from the Edwards campaign (having signed for it - it wasn’t spam or anything nasty like that). Edwards’ chutzpah is amazing, his depiction of Dean is despicable, and his tacit lack of ambition is telling in itself. Let me tell you what I mean.

Public campaign financing was put in place after Watergate - in an effort to fight political corruption by moneyed interests. In the 1970s, Congress made these reforms to keep presidents from being too reliant on (and beholden to) big money donors.

Since then, concerned politicians have fought to improve elections and reform the way campaigns are financed. Edwards helped craft and pass the historic McCain-Feingold legislation which took reform even further.

By turning his back on public financing, Howard Dean is weakening campaign finance reform that so many Democrats fought for. He is helping dismantle a system that has taken decades to build and that is still very delicate.

It took a lot of work to put these reforms in place. Why would anyone want to turn back the clock on campaign finance reform?

JOHN EDWARDS WANTS TO STRENGTHEN CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
John Edwards wants to REMAIN beholden to no one. He believes in the government regulations that keep candidates out of the pockets of big business and rich lobbyists.

John Edwards believes in democracy, that all voters get a say, not just the ones with the biggest checkbooks.

John Edwards is the ONLY presidential candidate who HAS NEVER accepted money from Washington lobbyists. NOT ONE DOLLAR in his entire career.

HELP JOHN EDWARDS KEEP GOVERNMENT CLEAN AND INDEPENDENT – AND GET A FREE BUSH TURKEY T-SHIRT

John Edwards wants to work within the political finance system - a system designed to keep all candidates honest and independent.

If you give $100 today, the federal government will match your donation with another $100. Your donation, up to $250, will be matched by public financing.

Help John Edwards today and get a “Bush Turkey” T-Shirt. The T-Shirt is FREE with your donation of $35

Here’s what Edwards wants to say, as I understand it. Public financing was put in place after Watergate to reduce the influence of big-money donors. John Edwards abides by those rules - he’s honest, he doesn’t take money from lobbyists or big corporations, he’s not swayed by money, he’s the only candidate who hasn’t accepted donations from Washington Lobbyists. He’ll keep Government clean and independent.

The lobbyist claim, I must say, is an amazingly foolish hostage to fortune. If Lieberman or Clark had any sense, they’d phone around their lobbyist friends asking them a) whether they knew anyone who donated to Edwards, and b) whether they could chip in $50 via Edwards’ online donation link. At a stroke they’d be calling Edwards a liar.

So far, so good. But look at what’s he’s also saying:

“Howard Dean is weakening campaign finance reform that so many Democrats fought for. […] Why would anyone want to turn back the clock on campaign finance reform?”

Suddenly, all his trumpeted good points become insidious slurs on Dean. Why would Dean abandon public financing? Clearly it must be because a) he’s influenced by big-money donors, b) he’s dishonest, c) he takes money from lobbyists or big corporations, d) he’s swayed by money, e) he’ll sell out Government, f) he’s dependent on his donors, or g) any or all of the above.

This is despicable. It’s low, dirty tactics that Karl Rove would be proud of. I’m all in favour of John Edwards trying to raise money through Internet grassroots - I think that’s the future of politics - but I object in the strongest possible way to his attempt to steal Dean’s clothes as the grassroots fund-raiser and paint Dean as the special-interest-beholden politics-as-usual candidate when, if anything, the opposite is true. It’s the Rovian Big Lie all over again, and I’m not going to stand for it.

Here’s the truth. John Edwards has had more big money donations ($2000+) than anybody other Democrat in the race, and the fewest small donations ($200 or less). Howard Dean, meanwhile, has had fewer big money donations than all but Kucinich and Lyndon Larouche, and more small donations than anybody but Kucinich.

Inasmuch as there’s any candidate in this Democratic Party race who is the candidate of big-money donors, not the grassroots, it is emphatically Edwards. Edwards is mendaciously calling Dean an elitist big-money special-interest candidate, when exactly the opposite is true. The truth is, if Dean hadn’t had the fundraising success he has had, Edwards would probably never have thought of raising money over the Internet.

As it is, he is implicitly acknowledging that he doesn’t expect to have the same impact as Dean. After all, the reason that Dean is opting out is that he looks like being able to raise so much money that the cap on fundraising imposed on him by campaign finance laws will be a hindrance, more so than the missing $19 million that the State would add in matching funds.

That doesn’t appear to be an issue that Edwards is addressing for the moment - probably because, in his heart of hearts, he knows he’s not going to get that many donations for it to be a problem. But if he ever does reach those limits and decline matching funds, that email above will come back to haunt him big time.