The latest campaign finance reform craze in Washington a few years ago was mostly a Democratic Party/Big Media initiative. John McCain was the useful idiot Republican in the scheme, but liberal establishment types are the folks with the vested interest in limiting free speech under the banner of "getting the money out of politics." After the most expensive Presidential election in history last year, it is only a matter of time before the Harry Reid/Nancy Pelosi cabal start braying about the destructive influence of money again.
Until that happens, Jerry Lundergan and Dale Emmons have a BIG IDEA! After promoting on their website for weeks that a major announcement was on the way, they claim boldly to support ending the practice of vote hauling.
The wording in the press release is laughable. Stating that the system "fosters class warfare" and causes "character assassination of indigent and disabled Kentucky voters," The Brain Trust on Democrat Drive in Frankfort proposes the big fix: just make the traditional practice of vote hauling illegal.
The worst kept secret in the last century of Kentucky politics is that vote-buying politicians can find willing sellers and compensate them as "vote haulers" who are paid with a wink and a nod to drive poor unfortunate souls to the polls. Keeping up this charade is where the concern for the reputations of indigent and disabled Kentucky voters comes from.
What we have here again is the the difference between stated reasons and the real reason for proposing a change in the law. Just as campaign finance reform was simply a dressed-up "Incumbent Protection and Mainstream Media Empowerment Act," this clean up the election process effort is a well-orchestrated effort to deflect blame from the vote buying cases winding their way through the federal legal system right now. Missing in all this bluster from the KDP is the simple fact that vote hauling isn't the problem; vote buying is the problem. And vote buying has been illegal for a long time. The change they are proposing is simple window dressing. If you believe that they really want to eliminate voter fraud, you probably also believe there is no need to reform Social Security.
