President Obama is making headlines with his accusation that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is using foreign money to fund its campaign efforts. That’s rich since, as Glenn Reynolds, a contributor to The Washington Examiner, notes, Obama has never satisfactorily explained why his 2008 presidential campaign committee accepted foreign credit card donations via its website or why it accepted untraceable, anonymous contributions from prepaid credit cards. The Washington Post reported a few days before the 2008 election that Obama’s website handlers chose “not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts.” First clean your own house, Mr. President.
But Obama’s attack on the Chamber is of a piece with claims Democrats have been shouting for weeks that Republicans are buying the election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it most vividly, promising to tie the GOP to corporate campaign cash “like doggy-doo stuck on your shoe.” A newly circulated Democratic Party memo claims that Republican-affiliated groups are outspending liberal Democratic groups $200 million to $7 million. Speaking at a rally in Maryland, President Obama offered his own campaign spending estimate, which was as off-base as Pelosi’s: “It is estimated that Democratic groups are being outspent seven to one,” he said.
