Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Just Click Send

Yesterday's New York Times included an editorial about the obstructionism of Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republican Senators:

We suspect that most Senate Republicans know how to use a computer and all of the other devices of the electronic age. Which means there is no excuse — except a desire to slow the public’s right to know — for their ongoing efforts to block electronic filing of their reports on campaign donations.

As hard as it is to believe, the Senate is still cynically mired in the dark age of paper filings. Candidates submit required reports on political money and donors via paper sheaves that wend through slow-mo typing, re-typing and mailing, ensuring that full disclosure only occurs sometime after Election Day.

...Watchdog groups, of course, helped lay bare the Republicans’ involvement with Jack Abramoff, the now-imprisoned superlobbyist. The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, better urge his recalcitrants to get over it and start delivering that Washington change they proclaim so loudly on the hustings. Can it be that politically risky to show the money sooner to their constituents?