Sadly, the DISCLOSE Act, part of the remedy to Citizens United, has been held up by Senate Republicans.  Joe Lieberman, for some reason, had to miss the vote, though he plans to vote with the Democrats next time around, but the ball got left in Senator Olympia Snowe’s court, and she continued to prove that there is no such thing as a moderate Republican.  Basically, the DISCLOSE Act requires that companies and interests groups (with some exceptions that a few powerful interests, namely the NRA, got into the bill) to reveal their contributors, have CEOs stand by the ads their corporate PACs fund, and ban foreign money.  Somehow, apparently, requiring the people who put up ads like what we saw in the Senate race here to reveal who they are counts as silencing critics in the view of Minority Leader McConnell.

Free speech exists for the benefit of the people and for our democracy.  To put it simply, it guarantees the free flow of ideas that a free country needs to survive.  But if the Supreme Court is going to interpret the First Amendment to allow corporations to buy elections, then we should at least get to know who’s buying them.  Apparently, Republicans would rather let shadowy corporate contributors operate in secret-even foreign companies.  But hey, they are their base after all.

Tags: Democrats, DISCLOSE Act, Republicans, U.S. Senate

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