'Donorgate' and the DNC

For years Democrats have dismissed Republican charges that the Public
Broadcasting System was a "left-leaning organization," even though most
of the programming produced by PBS was conspicuously -- and obviously --
liberal. However reports last week provided new details about how far
the Democrats are willing to go to prove GOP concerns about PBS were
on-target.

Americans now know that as far back as the 1980s PBS affiliate
stations have been providing the DNC with donor lists.

Stations in New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, and San
Francisco have all admitted to a congressional investigative panel that
they repeatedly gave their donor lists to the DNC. While at least one
PBS affiliate has admitted they provided their lists exclusively
to the DNC, investigators suspect this practice was intended to only
benefit Democrats from the outset.

By now, more and more Americans have learned that when the DNC calls
for campaign finance reform, they really mean campaign finance reform
for everyone but them.

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President Clinton's illicit fundraising efforts directed at China and
Indonesia are legendary, as is Vice President Al Gore's incredulous "no
controlling legal authority" Buddhist temple fundraiser. Legendary as
well is Attorney General Janet Reno's efforts to cover up the illegality
of these crimes.

Now we have "Donorgate." In short, it seems like the Democratic Party
leadership has never met a campaign finance rule it liked.

I don't expect anyone to be punished for this latest liberal scandal
because, frankly, after almost eight years of watching the GOP allow
Clinton to "get away with it," I don't have much faith in the old
"checks and balances" system currently being managed in Washington.

However, Donorgate can reasonably be seen as another nail in the
coffin of the modern liberal movement, and that's never a bad thing.
The Democrats can -- and likely will -- verbally maneuver through this
latest political minefield. But with each new scandal, more Americans
discover what a morally and ethically bankrupt party they have become.

It's not so much the corruption that surprises the mind. All the
latest polls show that Americans are cognizant of, and even expect, some
degree of corruption from their politicians.

What is amazing about liberals, however, is their hypocrisy. That is
what offends people -- liberals think everyone else but them is stupid.

Witness some of the excuses given to hide this probable violation of
IRS rules regulating the conduct of nonprofit organizations like PBS.

Sure, PBS station WGBH in Boston repeatedly provided the DNC with
donor lists throughout the 1980s and 1990s. But station spokesman
Jeanne M. Hopkins said, "This was not a partisan act. It was just
staffers that worked with lists making a mistake." Oh.

Maybe once, Ms. Hopkins, but several times? Perhaps she knows who
hired Craig Livingstone.

Then, there is the excuse issued by the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, the entity that issues contracts to PBS stations. When the
revelations about Donorgate began spilling into the open, CPB
immediately warned its stations that receive federal funding that it
"does not condone the providing of the lists to partisan political
organizations." Oh.

But of course CPB doesn't necessarily stop them from doing it
either. CPB also said they couldn't ban the practice because, according
to them, each PBS station is independently owned and operated.

Clinton and Gore have repeatedly denounced illicit campaign
contributions but they accepted them nonetheless.

Then, DNC lawyer Joe Sandler tried to re-write IRS regulations on his
own. He said, "It is absolutely commonplace for nonprofit organizations
to rent and exchange their lists with each other and with corporations
and with political organizations. The IRS rules are clear that a
nonprofit organization can rent or exchange its list with a political
organization as long as it treats all political organizations equally."

Joe must not be reading the Donorgate stories because it is blatantly
obvious that PBS stations were not treating "all political organizations
equally." The Republican National Committee never once got a donor list
from a PBS station. Worse, the RNC said it was never approached by
anyone from any PBS station wanting to "share" their donor lists.

Finally, everyone associated with this scandal from CPB to the guilty
PBS stations is screaming that they either disapprove of the practice or
they have "moved to cease" the practice of sharing donor lists.

Why is it that the only time liberals do this is when they've been
caught?

Furthermore, if there is no specific rule against it, as Sandler
says, why stop?

The fact is the Democratic Party, on the national level, has been
infested with hucksters, liars, shysters, quick-change artists, hit men,
quacks, losers and opportunists. That does not mean that ordinary
Americans who are Democrats share these values, but on the other hand
such utterly contemptible behavior does not bode well for those the
leadership is supposed to serve.

All political parties have skeletons. All have dishonest people
within the ranks. All have, from time to time, disingenuous intentions.

But in this Age of Clinton, the Democrats have consistently been the
most corrupt not because of some "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," but
because of their own abhorrent behavior. Donorgate is but the latest
example.