Skating the Infosphere

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, once a staunch supporter of reforming the way political campaigns are financed, is now very much against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA).

The BCRA, more familiarly known as the McCain-Feingold act, is the baby of one on Romney’s rivals for the nomination Sen. John McCain. The bill was enacted in 2002 and was credited as a major reform in campaign financing.

Without offering details, as befits a political candidate, Romney said “McCain-Feingold has not worked. It’s hurt my party, it hurts First Amendment rights. I think it was a bad bill.” This is a rather strange statement coming from a politician who once wanted to tax all contributions to candidates who opted for privately funding their campaigns in order
to publicly fund elections.

The word on the street is that Romney’s change of heart is politically motivated because McClain is one of his main rivals.

Additionally, Romney said provisions of the law bar some nonprofit groups from mentioning the name of a federal candidate during certain times in the campaign cycle. That statement has been disputed by several leading nonprofit organizations, who say no one’s freedom of speech is impeded by the financing bill.

[Keywords: romney, \\\'campaign finance reform\\\', McCain ]