And the guy across the table from you just up and punches you in the nose ...
you are no longer playing checkers!Greg Sargent of the Washington Post has an interesting piece about Democrats forming Priorities USA as a progressive counter-weight to try to balance the scales out a bit. The kicker is that it, too, will consist of undisclosed big-time donors. Sargent asked Paul Begala, one of the founders of Priorities USA, to defend his actions against charges of hypocrisy:
We strongly support reform. We support new laws to require transparency of all donations. We support repealing the wrongheaded Citizens United ruling. But, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the laws you have, not the laws you wish you had.
Mr. Rove, the billionaire Koch brothers, the Chamber of Commerce, the NRA, the American Action Network, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, the Club for Growth, and other right-wing groups are projected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to advance an extreme agenda which would hammer the middle class. We will not let their attacks go unanswered.
(snip)
Everywhere I go Americans have asked me why progressives are letting the right wing define the debate. Sadly, in the post-Citizens United world, unlimited money has allowed them to. There is a real groundswell out there. Progressives are fed up with the politics of fear and smear, fed by the tactics of lie and buy. They want to stand up and fight back. That’s just what we intend to do.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/paul-begala-youre-damn-right-well-spend-undisclosed-cash-to-battle-the-right/2011/03/03/AFem5LFF_blog.html