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Advocacy Blog
Thursday, January 12, 2006
McCellan Says Bush Wants to Regulate 527s but Also More Enforcement
From a January 9 Press Briefing:
Q: I understand the President recognizes this was Congressman DeLay's decision. But, again, as essentially the head of the Republican Party, is he concerned about the Abramoff scandal creating a kind of culture of corruption that is hitting, at this point, mostly Republicans? In that vein, does he think DeLay stepping down is a good thing for the Republican Party to take the lead in trying to clean this up?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that speculates about certain things that I don't think you can do, or insinuates certain things. And I don't think you can draw those conclusions. We'll see what happens with regards to the investigation you bring up. But I would point out that Congress has moved forward on a number of important reforms. The President has been someone who has supported campaign finance reform. The President has advocated also, and in fact he's signed into law, some legislation, some common sense campaign finance reforms. The President has long believed in rapid and full disclosure of contributors.
The President also has called for regulating 527 groups. These are groups that are -- have unregulated soft money coming into them, and we don't know where that money is coming from. And the President has called for those to be regulated similar to other political organizations. Now Congress -- the Republican leadership is looking at building on some of the reforms they have put in place. They are looking at ideas. We are open to looking at those ideas. We want to work constructively with Congress to move forward on some reforms. And we will do so.
But I would also point out that there are laws on the books. And those laws need to be enforced, and they need to be followed. And in fact in this instance, the laws are being enforced. Someone is being -- a number of people are being brought to account for the wrongdoing they engaged in by the Department of Justice. And that investigation continues at this point. I think going beyond where it is at this point is pure speculation.
Posted by Jennifer Lowe
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