The Washington Post and The New York Times have provided breathless, front-page articles about the various affairs of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas. It seems DeLay has relatives on his campaign payroll and has taken trips underwritten by lobbyists. Never mind that members of both parties conduct both practices with regularity. The damage is done in the headline and with the now-obligatory unflattering photo of DeLay.
What would these newspapers do with a story about real corruption in the U.S. Congress⢠What if a House leader engaged in a massive and blatant violation of the most fundamental campaign finance law, a law that both papers have championed editorially?
It happened last year. But neither newspaper has printed a single word about it.
On March 26, 2004, the Federal Election Commission fined two "leadership" political action committees associated with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California for making illegal contributions during the 2002 campaign.
The FEC also fined three congressional campaigns that failed to return excessive contributions made by Pelosi's PACs, after they were determined to be illegal. The FEC action was in response to a complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center on Oct. 25, 2002.
Members of the Democrat and Republican leaderships in the House and Senate may legally have so-called leadership PACs in addition to their own campaign committee. The purpose of "leadership" PACs is to make contributions to the campaigns of other congressional candidates. They may not be used, however, to circumvent the $5,000 contribution limit by making contributions from multiple PACs, which is exactly what Pelosi did. She set up two PACs, called PAC to the Future and Team Majority, and gave twice.
Within twenty-four hours of NLPC's complaint, Pelosi announced she would shut down Team Majority and retrieve contributions already made. It made 36 $5,000 contributions to candidates. Her surviving PAC, which is called PAC to the Future, distributed $1.7 million to candidates in the 2001-2002 election cycle.
It also is illegal to use multiple PACs to circumvent the limit on giving by donors to the PAC. Team Majority, the newer of the two PACs, reported 16 contributions of $5,000 each from donors who also gave the maximum to Pelosi's other PAC. Five of the donors gave to both PACs on the same day.
Under conciliation agreements reached with the FEC, Pelosi's two committees had to pay $21,000. Three congressional campaigns, including that of Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a possible Senate candidate, were fined and additionally forced to disgorge $5,000 each to the U.S. Treasury.
You would think that with all these newsworthy developments involving a major political figure, our phone would be ringing off the hook. In fact, at the time not a single reporter called. The story was reported only by States News Service, a competent little outfit, but a far cry from the front page of The Post or The Times.
Perhaps they can be forgiven for such a double standard. After all, DeLay is "partisan," while Pelosi is an advocate of what is called campaign finance reform. She was even saluted by Common Cause during its 2002 Campaign Finance Victory Tour in the wake of the passage of Shays-Meehan, the House version of McCain-Feingold.
During the debate, Pelosi complained of "extremists in the Republican Party who have repeatedly tried to undermine campaign finance reform" and of "sneaky tactics employed by the Republicans" to weaken Shays-Meehan.
Pelosi's committees violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Its limitations on contributions are the most fundamental tenet of campaign finance reform. Passed during the 1970s in the wake of Watergate, FECA is the long-cherished accomplishment of Common Cause. A visit to the Common Cause Web site, however, reveals not a word about Pelosi's shredding of the law -- but quite a lot about DeLay.
Leo McCarthy, the treasurer of both of Pelosi's PACs and the former lieutenant governor of California, candidly admitted to Roll Call that the "main reason" for setting up the second PAC was to "give twice as much (sic) hard dollars."
I guess Pelosi and the other "reformers" have learned the easy way that no amount of hypocrisy or cynicism is too much as long as partisan media are on your side.
Peter Flaherty is president of the National Legal and Policy Center, a nonpartisan foundation promoting ethics in public life.
