The fund-raising practices that earned people convictions in Watergate are back in a different, lega

[babsbunny]

The fund-raising practices that earned people convictions in Watergate are back in a different, legal form in 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/weekinreview/17abramson.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

To old political hands, wise to the ways of candidates and money, 1972 was a watershed year. Richard M. Nixon’s re-election campaign was awash in cash, secretly donated by corporations and individuals.
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Rick Bowmer/Associated Press

Fred Malek served in President Nixon’s re-election campaign. To- day, he is the founder of American Action Network, a nonprofit like Crossroads GPS, which is linked to Karl Rove. These groups have raised and spent millions in 2010.

Fred Wertheimer, a longtime supporter of campaign finance regulation, was then a lawyer for Common Cause. He vividly recalls the weeks leading up to April 7, 1972, before a new campaign finance law went into effect requiring the disclosure of the names of individual donors. “Contributors,” he said, “were literally flying into Washington with satchels of cash.”