McConnell opened his remarks at the California resort with a tip of the hat to the wealthy conservative activists hosting the summit — whose network raised over $400 million for the Republican cause in 2012 alone — saying “I want to start by thanking you, Charles and David (Koch), for the important work you’re doing. I don’t know where we’d be without you…”
The senator devoted most of his speech to his desire to free up unlimited political spending, or what he calls “free speech.” He described the campaign finance reform movement beginning during the Watergate scandal as an effort by “the political left” to control the political process, though neglecting to mention his support for strict contribution limits and public financing of elections during the 1970s, when he called the corrupting influence of money in politics a “cancer” on democracy.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision that freed up unlimited political spending by corporations and Super PACs, McConnell said the decision “leveled the playing field” for corporations, ushering in “the most free and open system we’ve had in modern times.” McConnell added, “I pray for the health of the five” justices who ruled his way in the case.
While most of McConnell’s comments on campaign finance mirrored his public statements, he did add this eye-opening quote on the passage of the 2002 McCain-Feingold bill that regulated electioneering communications.
“The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law in the early part of his first Administration,” said McConnell.
Commentators have noted that McConnell’s tenure in the Senate has included two government shutdowns, multiple wars, the 9/11 attacks, and the financial collapse of 2008. Regarding the latter, McConnell said at the time that the passage of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout for firms directly implicated in the crash was “the Senate at its finest.”
In other words, legislation limiting political spending by the wealthy was his worst day in the Senate, and legislation giving a $700 billion handout to the wealthy was his finest day in the Senate.
Regarding the newly proposed amendment to the Constitution to overrule Citizens United, McConnell fielded a question from David Koch and told the crowd that this is radical legislation seeking to silence the wealthy.
Yet, some people still claim that we don’t need unions, or that we don’t need politically active unions. And these very same people will say there is a “level playing field” in politics… The level of ignorance out there is off the charts.
