The Best Reform Money Can Buy

The web storm over the long reach of the BCRA of 2002, better known as McCain-Feingold, continues to grow. Although many of us opposed the measure, which received considerable attention during the past presidential campaign, the current news cycle was begun by FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith's interview with CNET, which was published March 3.

Then, over one week ago, New York Post editorialist Ryan Sager, writing for TCS, broke the story that eight liberal foundations were the principal funders of the various "grassroots" organizations that pushed for campaign finance reform. He also revealed that the Reform Institute, a nonprofit, seems to exist primarily to advance the platform of John McCain, and as a holding company for his staff ahead of the '08 elections. This has been covered by many bloggers and several traditional journalists. I've written about it several times.

This morning, John Fund weighs in with a good recap for a more general audience who may not have followed the story too closely. I only wish his column had run in the print issue of the Journal.

The New York Post, which has owned the story in the big papers, has an editorial calling for the IRS to investigate the efforts of the Pew Charitable Trusts to manufacture what Fund calls an "astroturf" movement:

There's good reason to be wary of Pew's insistence that, as Bugsy might put it, it don't know nuthn' 'bout nuthn'. By now there are more links on the story than I can list here, but Ryan Sager has been this story's prime mover. In addition to his TCS column cited above, he posted a partial transcript of Treglia's remarkable example of braggadocio at USC last year here; the full video of this performance is here, a link from Sager's own blog, Miscellaneous Objections. Sager wrote a second column for TCS this past Friday.

As for Sean Treglia, you really must watch the video to understand his crucial role here, and to learn a lesson in humility. That's because Treglia comes off as unbearably arrogant and proud about his role in helping Pew funnel tens of millions of dollars into the campaign reform lobby to create what Fund calls a Potemkin movement.

I'll have another post on Treglia soon.