when is a grassroots campaign...not?

john fund expands on ryan sager's expose of Pew Charitable Trusts 'envelope-pushing' efforts behind campaign finance reform.

former Pew official Sean Treglia all but bragged of these efforts:

"The idea was to create an impression that a mass movement was afoot. That everywhere [Congress] looked, in academic institutions, in the business community, in religious groups, in ethnic groups, everywhere, people were talking about reform."

in truth, a bunch of lefty groups basically created/supported seemingly partisan outfits to tout the reform.

A study last month by the Political Money Line, a nonpartisan Web site dealing with campaign funding issues, found that of the $140 million spent to directly promote liberal campaign reform in the last decade, a full $123 million came from just eight liberal foundations.

apparently George Will came close to revealing the hanky panky (i tried to find the link to no avail)...

"But you know what the good news is from my perspective?" Treglia says to the stunned crowd. "Journalists didn't care...So no one followed up on the story."

the MSM dropping the ball on a news story...that never happens...

fund summarizes:

McCain-Feingold did little in last year's elections to limit the influence of money in politics, but a great deal to benefit incumbents and harm true grass-roots politics. . . . The next time Congress debates further 'reform' of the rules for conducting elections, it would behoove all of us to learn who is really behind the effort, and what their true motives might be.

¶ - nitish @ 11:49 AM