August 28, 2007
Unknown American Hero
Increasingly, a measure by which many Independent voters determine whether or not to vote for an incumbent or their challenger, is based on who is funding their campaign and in what amount. One American hero is largely responsible for the public having that ability. His name is Fred Wertheimer.
Fred Wertheimer is a name and face which Independent / Third Party voters, and all voters concerned with responsible, ethical, and accountable government, should get acquainted with.
In an excellent article about Mr. Wertheimer, Jeffrey H. Birnbaum of the Washington Post writes: For 36 years, Wertheimer has worked tirelessly to change congressional ethics and campaign finance laws. This year he conceived and championed the most consequential part of the soon-to-be-signed lobbying bill: a provision that requires lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who "bundle" campaign checks for them.
Much of the data on who is giving big checks and who is taking them, can be found here at the Federal Elections Commission web site, thanks in no small measure to Mr. Wertheimer's decades of effort.
Mr. Wertheimer, thank you. You are like water pouring over rock, year after year, eroding the rock in the grinding and unyielding motion of your efforts toward passage, until one day the canyon of free flowing information needed by voters to make an informed decision is carved wide and deep for all to benefit from.
David,
Right on target! Only two minor concerns: will voters take the time to get the information that will become available, and will our “representatives” in Washington find some loophole to get around the required disclosure?
Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle who pull the R or D lever without ever thinking of what they are doing. I keep hearing about “blue dog Democrats” in Congress, although they are only referred to by that name by other Democrats. But, in Arkansas we had what were called “yellow dog Democrats” although there were Republicans that could be characterized the same. These are folks who would vote for a yellow dog if wore the correct party label. It’s a shame, and a crime, that so many people don’t bother to THINK before they make their decision on who to vote for. Since I learned that there are two parties, and maybe more, I have tried to find out as much about candidates for what ever office is being contested so I can choose the one, in my opinion, is best for the job. Sometimes R, sometimes D, sometimes I.
With the events of the past 16 years to guide us, I am hopeful that the majority of the electorate will start thinking and acting about what is best for the country and not which party a candidate belongs to.
Posted by: Old Grouch at August 28, 2007 08:20 PMHey David R.,
You might consider putting
align=”left” vspace=”10” hspace=”10”
into your photo html.
That should, I think, allow the text to wrap as it should and also create a bit of space between the photo and the text.
Gerrold, thanks. It messes up the blockquote, but, I will just change the blockquote to italics. Thanks.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 28, 2007 09:38 PMFred Wertheimer gets it.
Too bad he is such an extreme minority.
HTML Formatting Tips:
<strong>bold text</strong>
<em>italicize text</em>
<u>underline text</u>
<strike>strike text</strike>
<a href="http://domain.com/link">link text</a>
<blockquote>quote text</blockquote>
By clicking the "Post" button you agree to abide by the Rules For Participation.
