Hypocritical acceptance of zillionaire advocacy dollars

ATLANTA/WASHINGTON, DC: The Southeastern Legal Foundation today slammed U.S. Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) "desperate measures to fire up a train going nowhere," related to Sen. McCain's recent sparring with House Republicans on support for his campaign finance "reform" bill.

"McCain's heavy-handed tactics, including demands for support placed on House Republicans for whom he campaigned in 2000, give the American people a vivid picture of the partisan extortion techniques against which he has railed for years," said Phil Kent, SLF President. "His so-called 'Iron Triangle' of money, lobbyists, and special interests are in fact his very modus operandi."

Kent points out that McCain has been working closely with, and defending, dot-com billionaire Andrew McKelvey, a gun control advocate and chief fund source for Americans for Gun Safety. McCain appeared in ads sponsored by AGS, touting gun control efforts. McKelvey donated $114,872 to help finance a last-minute TV blitz promoting passage of -- you guessed it -- the McCain-Feingold bill in the Senate. While demanding the elimination of large, unregulated contributions in political contests, the pro-McCain-Feingold ads urged, "Let's take the $100,000 check out of politics." McCain has publicly defended McKelvey's "right" to spend his money.

"Senator McCain has been engaged in a political shake-down against his counterparts in the House, while condemning the very tactics of soft mone politicking and special interest pressure he embraces in practice," said Kent. "This is a 'do as I say, not as I do' approach to politics that involves a direct threat to the First Amendment. The American people deserve better, whether determined in Congress or in court."

The Foundation, which is preparing a constitutional federal court challenge against provisions of McCain-Feingold and Shays-Meehan if they become law, won a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning the use of Clinton-driven Census statistical sampling for congressional apportionment. The Foundation's legal team, working under the advisory counsel of former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, is "ready, willing and able to bring suit against free speech gags and campaign price-fixing in McCain-Feingold," said Kent.

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