In the heat of the last two weeks -- Immigration, Ferguson -- we shouldn't miss that in its November 20th issue, The Wall Street Journal editorialized that the only reason Democratic senators blocked the Keystone Pipeline was that environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer contributed to them.
Gee, I thought conservatives believed that campaign donations were no big deal:
"It looks as if Tom Steyer did get something for the $74 million he spent on the midterm elections. The billionaire environmentalist bought what is left of the Democratic Senate. That's the story behind the remarkable display Tuesday night in which 41 Democrats voted to abandon a Senate seat rather than cross Mr. Steyer and the big green money machine... The party of the private union working class is gone. Green money rules... With a few exceptions, the Democrats who will remain in the Senate next year are either gentry liberals themselves or are too afraid to risk losing the green cash on which they have become dependent. Either way, Tom Steyer owns them."
Hmmm... If Steyer is buying liberals, then what are the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, etc. getting from the Republicans? Votes and women? Given how shrewd they are at business, they must be getting something more than votes since their donations exceed Steyer's.
Given its support for the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which enabled this spending spree, it appeared that "owning" Senators was actually OK with the Journal. (Unlike John McCain, who called it the Supreme Court's "worst decision ever." The Court then accepted McCain's challenge with an even worse decision in McCain's home state: American Free Enterprise Club vs. Bennett. There the Court struck down a law which provided public funding to a candidate who is considerably outspent by his opponent. This was said to violate the free speech of the big political money raiser!!! Oh, I'm sorry...in the WSJ's campaign finance analysis: the free speech of the big political "whore.")
So, WSJ, welcome to the fight to clean up our political system. Ready to support campaign finance reform?
Or is it only OK when conservative officeholders are purchased?