Thread: Author: George Soros brains behind McCain-Feingold

ELECTION 2008
Author: George Soros brains behind McCain-Feingold
'Activist wanted limits on advertising after Hillarycare defeat'

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Posted: February 18, 2008
10:05 pm Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


George Soros

An investigative author says George Soros used Sen. John McCain to push for limits on issue advertising by grassroots groups because he was upset over the cataclysmic failure of Hillarycare, the all-encompassing government health care program proposed during Bill Clinton's first term as president.

The author, Richard Poe, whose earlier publications include Hillary's Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists, told WND that Soros later funded the senator's Reform Institute because of their work together on the McCain-Feingold Act.

"Money paid to the Reform Institute rewarded McCain for pushing the McCain-Feingold Act, a law which restricts the ability of grassroots groups to advertise on television, while allowing major media free rein to promote their favorite Democrat candidates," Poe told WND.

According to the author, Soros devised McCain-Feingold in 1994 in response to the failure of Hillarycare, the universal health care program Hillary Clinton championed.

Hillary, Soros and other Democrats blamed the defeat of Hillarycare on television advertising and, as a result, Soros resolved to choke off access to the TV airwaves to those opponents, Poe told WND.

A comment could not be obtained from the McCain campaign because of the holiday yesterday. But in their book, "The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party," co-authors David Horowitz and Poe trace Soros' determination to push for campaign finance reform back to a speech Soros gave at Columbia University's school of medicine on Nov. 30, 1994.

In that address, Soros spoke mainly about a new initiative he was launching called the Project on Death in America.

With his Project on Death in America, Soros sought to promote "palliative care," which means keeping patients comfortable while they are dying, but making no effort to save or extend their lives.

In their book, Horowitz and Poe argued that Soros had a "covert purpose," both in supporting Hillarycare and in funding the Project on Death in America, namely, "to save money by rationing healthcare."

Healthcare rationing was the essence of Hillary’s health plan in 1994, just as it is today, Poe said, when Hillary now promises to slash medical spending in America by $120 billion per year.

Horowitz and Poe saw Soros' Project on Death in America as a back-door effort to salvage a key feature of Hillarycare, seeking to implement Hillarycare through the private sector, after failing to pass the agenda politically.

Soros ended his Columbia University speech by promising to "do something" about "the distortion of our electoral process by the excessive use of TV advertising."

Horowitz and Poe argue that the "something" turned out to be the McCain-Feingold Act of March 27, 2002.

Still, Horowitz and Poe insisted that the McCain-Feingold Act was a "Trojan Horse."

"Its stated purpose was to clean up politics by tightly regulating the amount of money political parties and candidates could accept from donors," Horowitz and Poe wrote. "Its actual purpose, to use Soros' words, was to curb the 'use of TV advertising' in American politics."

Poe told WND that Soros' plan came to fruition with his funding of Arianna Huffington's "Shadow Conventions," which were designed to be held at the same time and in the same cities as the Republican and Democratic national nominating conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles in 2000.

Sen. Russ Feingold was the keynote speaker at the Los Angeles Shadow Convention during the Democratic Party's national nominating convention, while John McCain gave the keynote speech in Philadelphia during the Republican Party's national nominating convention.

An archived transcript from CNN shows McCain delivered the keynote address for Huffington's Shadow Convention on July 30, 2000, two days before he addressed the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

In their book "The Shadow Party," Horowitz and Poe document what they call "Pewgate," a successful effort by Soros' Open Society Institute to get Pew Charitable Trusts to lead a group of foundations to contribute $140 million to promote campaign finance reform from 1994 to 2004.

"Without funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute and other Pewgate foundations, the Shadow Conventions could not and would not have occurred, any more than McCain-Feingold could eventually have passed into law," wrote Horowitz and Poe.

The Reform Institute opened its doors in July 2001, with John McCain listed as chairman on the organization's homepage and Arianna Huffington listed as a member of the Advisory Committee.

"McCain's Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues received generous funding from several Pewgate foundations, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. Revocable Trust, and George Soros' Open Society Institute," wrote Horowitz and Poe in "The Shadow Party."

After studying the Reform Institute's website, Horowitz and Poe concluded that "almost all of McCain's funders who have contributed more than $50,000 are left-wing foundations."

WND previously has reported McCain used the Reform Institute to provide salaries for his 2000 presidential campaign staff, including Rich Davis, McCain's campaign manager, who received six figure compensation from the Reform Institute in 2003 and 2004, first as a consultant, then as the Reform Institute's president.

WND has also reported the Center for Public Integrity in 2002 charged McCain with what amounts to influence peddling, based on evidence McCain and Davis used McCain's position as chairman of the influential Senate Commerce Committee to further the business interests of telecommunications clients of Davis's lobbying firm or to solicit contributions to the Reform Institute from telecommunications companies seeking favorable FCC rulings.

"It's the old game," Poe said. "These foundations are supposed to be non-partisan institutes formed to advance some public policy agenda, in keeping with their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt guidelines, but many engage in outright politicking."

"The Reform Institute became a virtual 'McCain for President' campaign headquarters, preparing for 2008," he continued. "The place was staffed up with McCain campaign personnel and the goal was to promote McCain as a 'reformer.'"

Despite the charges raised against McCain in "The Shadow Party," Horowitz has defended publicly the Republican frontrunner against conservative critics.

Poe supports McCain too, but reluctantly.

"McCain is all we've got," Poe told WND. "Republicans need to unite behind him, but we also need to hold his feet to the fire. McCain must break his ties with the Hillary-Soros machine."

Media wishing to interview the author of this article, please e-mail Tim Bueler.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56745

you get what you pay for America... you want SH_T; You get SH_T

I WILL NOT VOTE FOR JOHN MCCAIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. I hate the fact that we have no candidates to chose from. I will write in my candidate of choice, someone who would have made REAL change. Ron Paul. I know many of you don't like some of is views,however I would rather have someone protecting my freedoms getting govenrmnt of my back than what we have now.