Republicans keep trying to make a big deal over donations to the Clinton Foundation and even the existence of a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC, even as their own campaigns are fueled overwhelmingly by outside money. Huffington Post's Paul Blumenthal
points out that:
Since 2010, the conservative Supreme Court majority has rejected this argument as a reason to regulate campaign finance in their Citizens United, McCutcheon and Williams-Yulee decisions. Most leading Republican federal officeholders now take the view that spending of any sort on campaigns should not be impeded by legal restrictions as fears of corruption are overblown.
So the critical piling on Clinton Foundation donations creates a problem for Republicans, especially those running for president. If contributions to the foundation, a 501(c)(3) entity not involved in political campaigns, create a valid source of corruption concern, then what are we to make of the hundreds of millions of dollars in undisclosed donations to 501(c)(4) nonprofits that have worked to elect Republicans over the past three elections?
You've got five top Republicans
vying for the Koch brothers' endorsement, Scott Walker out looking for
any megadonor he can find, Jeb Bush decided to take
more than $1 million per super-PAC donor after all, and
one billionaire hedge funder basically making Ted Cruz a financially viable candidate all by himself. But somehow it's donations to the Clinton Foundation we're supposed to be worried about as a corrupting influence in politics.
Meanwhile, as Blumenthal notes, all those Republicans have no problem with money in politics as a policy issue. Clinton, on the other hand, has made this commitment:
“I will do everything I can to appoint Supreme Court justices who protect the right to vote and do not protect the right of billionaires to buy elections,” Mrs. Clinton said while on Day 1 of a two-day swing through Iowa.
Expect the media to ask why she's not unilaterally disarming for 2016 by refusing to fundraise, rather than paying attention to the money flooding the Republican side of the presidential race or, heaven forbid, covering money in politics as a serious policy issue.