Redstate

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"I don't know." -- Helen Thomas, in response to the question, "Are we at war, Helen?" - posed by then-White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Please provide links if you have them. Thanks!

PR from his office.
"Thomas" entry here.
Text here.

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"I don't know." -- Helen Thomas, in response to the question, "Are we at war, Helen?" - posed by then-White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Will be much more damaging than the accused corruption of Republicans by dhimmiecrats.

The text of the Amendment:

The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To modify the application of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to Indian tribes)
At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. __X. APPLICATION OF FECA TO INDIAN TRIBES.

(a) Contributions and Expenditures by Corporations.--Section 316 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441b) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``(d) Treatment of Indian Tribes as Corporations.--

``(1) IN GENERAL.--In this section, the term `corporation' includes an unincorporated Indian tribe.

``(2) TREATMENT OF MEMBERS AS STOCKHOLDERS.--In applying this subsection, a member of an unincorporated Indian tribe shall be treated in the same manner as a stockholder of a corporation.''.

(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to any election that occurs after December 31, 2007.

Sen. Vitter's comments on the floor (explaining the amendment):

Madam President, this amendment is very simple. It attacks what is a very significant loophole in current campaign finance law, and that is a big and gaping loophole with regard to Indian tribes. As you know, under Federal campaign finance law, entities such as corporations, labor unions, et cetera, can participate in the Federal political process, but they need to do that, in terms of contributions and finances, through PACs, through political action committees. That is not true with regard to Indian tribes. Indian tribes, unlike every other entity, unlike corporations, unlike labor unions, unlike every entity under the Sun, can give money directly from their tribal revenues--including, of course, their biggest source of revenue right now, which is gambling revenue. So they can take that significant source of money and use that directly, through the leadership vote of the tribe, to give money to political candidates.

In addition, there is another part of this big loophole, and that is that some of the cumulative giving limits that apply to every other entity out there--corporations, labor unions, et cetera--do not apply to Indian tribes. Again, this is a very glaring loophole under present Federal campaign finance law. I do not think there is any good rationale or argument under the Sun to retain it.

I strongly urge all of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to take a good, hard look at this and vote for and support this very simple amendment which simply closes that loophole.

We may have some Member stand on the Senate floor and say: It may be a good idea, but we need to put it off. We are going to look at campaign finance later. We need to talk about this later in a different context.

I strongly disagree. When we think about the events of the last year, when we think about the debate, the national concern about corruption and cronyism, certainly there are big stories having to do with Indian tribes at the center of this. Some of the worst abusers of those situations were not the tribal members nor the tribal leadership themselves, but certainly it involved Indian tribes, and certainly the enormous amount of money available to the tribes because of gambling revenue was at the heart of those very bad situations.

I think we need to address this now. We need to hit it dead on. It is very much part of the stories and concerns we have heard about over the last year or two. Again, this is very simple, straightforward and very fair--which is to treat Indian tribes exactly as we treat other entities, such as corporations, such as labor unions, et cetera. Certainly allow them to participate in the political process, certainly allow them to fully support candidates of their choice but make them do that through setting up PACs, not simply allow them to spend their gambling revenue or other proceeds directly and in many cases without some of the overall limits that apply to other entities such as corporations.

With that, I will be happy to answer any questions or participate in any debate on the floor. I, also, have two other amendments at the desk. Whenever it is in order, I ask to call up those so we may discuss those as well.

Here is the Roll Call vote: (Yeas are to table--kill--the amendment, Nos are to allow the amendment)

YEAs ---56
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (I-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Thomas (R-WY)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---40
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Specter (R-PA)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)

Not Voting - 4
Brownback (R-KS)
Crapo (R-ID)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)

If the Reps were smart, they would be blowing the trumpet on this kind of ethical dodgeball. Let's not take cooperation too far, because the donks certainly didn't do that when they were the minority.

This should be all over Rush, Hannity, Fox News, and anyone else who will talk it up. Reid in particular has ethical problems, and we need to be attacking him vigorously.