John Edwards is hoping to use ethics as a wedge issue to regain some momentum in the Democratic presidential primary.
But it’s a path fraught with perilous contradictions, centering on an issue that many voters have moved to the back burner after kicking out the scandal-ridden Republican majority in Congress last year. “Ethics is not the issue for 2008,” said Peter Hart, a polling expert.
snip: But consider this: He is asking his national party committees to turn down lobbyists’ donations even though he benefited from such “tainted” cash twice before — in his 1998 North Carolina Senate race and in 2004 as Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry’s vice presidential running mate.
During Edwards’ maiden campaign in 1998, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent about $1.5 million to help him win, Federal Election Commission records show. Six years later, the Democratic National Committee poured millions into the presidential race to help the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Both committees accepted lobbyist cash at that time.
Even Edwards’ own ban on donations from registered federal lobbyists doesn’t mean that people with a great deal of influence and interest in the legislative process aren’t still fueling his presidential operation.
Sure, they aren’t registered lobbyists. But they do employ them. A case in point: trial lawyers.
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