McCain says GOP is Corrupt
Last night in the Republican presidential debate, Sen. John McCain said, in response to Mitt Romney’s criticism of McCain‐Feingold: “Is there anyone who believes there’s not enough money washing around money in politics, which has corrupted our own party?”
His “we have enough money in politics” argument has become a standard defense of McCain‐Feingold. The idea here is that while McCain‐Feingold may have restricted spending on politics, there is still “enough” money in politics. But McCain characteristically misses the point. In a free society, the question is not whether citizens collectively produce “enough” spending on politics. It is rather whether they are free to spend on politics as they wish. McCain‐Feingold abridged political liberties even if Sen. McCain believes we have “enough” political speech left over.
McCain’s charge that the GOP is corrupt also recalls the debates surrounding McCain‐Feingold. The Senator then charged the entire Senate with corruption, but when Sen. McConnell challenged him to name a single corrupt individual, he could not. Now McCain thinks the GOP itself was corrupted by money in politics. That seems like a strange way to appeal for the votes of active Republicans. But Sen. McCain should be required to say exactly how campaign finance corrupted the entire Republican party.
