Molly Ivins September 4

AUSTIN — Whee, here we go again. Sen. Fred Thompson and the boys (plus one girl) return, and we get to see if they have made any progress toward grasping The Big Picture.

When last we checked in on our friendly committee on campaign financing, it was busy spending $5 million to investigate $3 million worth of questionable contributions, which had already been returned and which amounted to a minuscule percentage of the money in the '96 election. This may be a useful exercise, but it doesn't quite address the problem of what's wrong with our system of campaign financing.

As everyone who is not on the Thompson committee has already grasped, the real problem is not illegal campaign contributions; the real problem is what IS legal. The real problem is not foreign contributions but good old red-blooded American money buying itself government favors just as fast as Congress can dole them out.

By focusing on foreign contributions, the committee is doing a grave disservice to the country. I say this not to mitigate the law-breaking involved in taking foreign contributions but, again, to point out that the whole problem is far larger and far more serious.

Also, there is at least a whiff of racism in the focus on Asian money. In point of fact, the Federal Election Commission recently levied the largest fine in its history for a foreign contribution — on a German gentleman living in Florida who gave a large glug of cash to the Dole campaign. But have we heard anything about "Strudelgate"? Do we suspect the German government of a nefarious scheme to influence our policy toward the Bundesbank? Have right-wing magazines run racist caricatures of Germans or of Dole wearing a Nazi uniform? No, such treatment is reserved for Asians and Democrats.

Again, none of this excuses soliciting illegal contributions — by either party. (Spare me the Haley-Barbour-did-nothing-wrong rationale; being better at laundering your foreign money does not make it right.) Again, the problem is far larger than foreign contributions, and it is most emphatically not a partisan problem.

Another red herring in all this is the "He made fund-raising calls from the White House!" from the shocked-by-gambling-at-Rick's-Cafe crowd.

In what possible way would it be better if the president or any other politician ducked out the door, raced down the street to a phone booth and made calls asking for contributions from folks who have bidness with the government from there? Always providing the taxpayers didn't get stuck with the phone tab, which in the case of Vice President Al Gore seems to have come to $24.20, which he can certainly repay us. Again, get a grip here; the problem is not the site — it's the system.

But speaking of the site, let us pause to salute Sen. Phil Gramm, of all people, for having the courage to announce that he, too, had used his office for political calls during his presidential race. According to Larry Neal, Gramm's press secretary, Gramm did not make fund-raising calls from his office, but he did make campaign calls, using his campaign credit card for the purpose. Good on Gramm for having the guts to say so. It is painfully obvious to all of us, even without the egregious Dick Morris to tell us what we already know, that Gramm is not the first or only senator to do so; but so far, he is the only one gutsy enough to admit it. Good on him.

So, to end this painful and pointless hypocrisy, should we just make it legal to use a government phone for campaign fund-raising as long as a separate credit card is used? No. What we should do is reform the entire system.

End legalized bribery. Completely eliminate all soft money. Put strict limits on contributions and spending. Provide public financing through a check-off system on the IRS forms. Require the networks to give free time for political debates. Reform or outlaw campaign advertising. Require that all contributions come from within a candidate's district. And so forth.

None of this is unheard of, untried, novel or outre. All of it works quite well already in other countries and even in some states. The need for these reforms gets clearer by the day; we are already watching both parties start to collect huge slush funds for next year's campaigns. Same old same old, except that it gets worse every time.

Watching the Thompson committee resolutely refuse to focus on the real problems is discouraging but not fatal. One of the biggest problems standing in the way of campaign finance reform is the widespread impression that it will never happen. It sure will, but only the people can make it happen.

Today's slogan:

A Congress from campaign cash set free

Can vote its conscience for you and me.

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Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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