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Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal

 
Editorial
Monday, April 25, 2011

“Here's another reason to think the 2012 campaign is underway with a vengeance: If a company wants a federal government contract, from now on it will first have to disclose if the company or its executives gave more than $5,000 in political donations.

“This latest federal rule comes courtesy of a new executive order now being drafted in the White House. The order would implement parts of last year's Disclose Act, which failed to pass Congress but was a favorite of Democrats because it would deter political contributions by business after last year's Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision …

“The draft order doesn't cover federal employee labor unions, the Democratic allies whose free speech rights were recognized alongside corporations in Citizens United. Nor do the disclosure requirements extend to recipients of federal grants, which often run into the millions of dollars. These donees are usually Democrats too.

“Mandatory disclosure would impose politics on federal procurement choices as never before …

“The closest we can come to something comparable is former Nixon henchman John Dean's memo during the Watergate era that the point of keeping an ‘enemies list’ was to ‘determine what sorts of dealings these individuals have with the Federal Government and how we can best screw them’ …

“Disclosure may sound nice, but the real point is to put companies on notice that their political contributions will have, well, consequences. When the Disclose Act was before Congress, New York Democrat and co-sponsor Chuck Schumer made clear the bill was designed to "embarrass companies" out of exercising the rights recognized in Citizens United. "The deterrent effect should not be underestimated," he said …

“The point of all this is to discourage political speech by certain speakers. … Having failed to overrule Citizens United in Congress, Democrats now want to do it via executive diktat. Remember when Barack Obama campaigned as a postpartisan who'd stop all that Washington nastiness?”

Click Here To Read The Full Column: http://on.wsj.com/ibm6oE