Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Back in October 2010, I posted that:
The concern trolls of the corporate media conglomerates are starting to push back against the Democratic attacks against the corrupting influence of corporate money in American elections, including foreign money in American elections (illegal), foreign money that has been commingled in the general account of the "U.S." Chamber of Commerce which is spending $75 million in this mid-term election.
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The ChiComs Chamber of Commerce has to prove that it actually has a firewall in place to prevent foreign money from being used to influence American elections, otherwise the commingling of funds is money laundering and is illegal. This would require the Chamber to disclose its financial procedures, its contributors, the amount of the contributions, and how that foreign money is accounted for, either segregated or commingled in the Chamber's general fund (as has been reported). This is something the Chamber does not want to do. It wants to protect the anonymity of its donors as a front group for corporate interests, some of them foreign, that want to operate in the shadows to influence American elections.
This issue returns today with a new twist from our own Sen. John McCain. The Caucus: Adelson Is Contributing ‘Foreign Money,’ McCain Says:
Senator John McCain of Arizona suggested in an interview posted online on Friday that a “super PAC” backing Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, may have provided a conduit for foreign money to enter the presidential race.
Mr. McCain, his party’s 2008 presidential nominee and one of Mr. Romney’s most prominent surrogates, was asked in the interview about recent contributions of $10 million to the super PAC, called Restore our Future, from Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino owner, and his wife, Miriam. Mr. McCain noted that Mr. Adelson’s casino empire draws much of its revenue from overseas casinos, including major properties in Macau.
“Obviously, maybe in a roundabout way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign,” Mr. McCain said in the interview, which was with PBS.
Foreign citizens are prohibited from making political contributions in the United States. Corporations, individuals, and unions are permitted to make unlimited contributions to super PACs, political committees that are nominally independent of candidates but often closely tied to them. The Adelsons’ contributions to Restore Our Future followed a May meeting between Mr. Romney, who is not allowed to solicit super PAC contributions, and Mr. Adelson, whose family had previously contributed more than $20 million to a super PAC backing Newt Gingrich.
Watch Sen. John McCain: 'There Will Be Scandals' in Campaigns on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Mr. McCain also blasted the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, calling the 2010 ruling — which paved the way for super PACs that have since spent tens of millions of dollars in federal elections “the most misguided, naive, uninformed, egregious decision of the United States Supreme Court I think in the 21st century.”
The Citizens United majority glossed over concerns for foreign money being used to influence U.S. elections. They just lacked the imagination of billionaires who want to buy the U.S. government like Sheldon Adelson.
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