Jewish Paralysis

Jewish groups have taken a back seat in
the debate over campaign finance reform.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

wo events last week told an
interesting tale about the
state of American politics in
the late 1990s. Once again,
the Senate turned down the McCain-
Feingold campaign finance reform bill
— a foregone conclu-
sion to all but "good-
government" groups
that still believe law-
makers will voluntar-
ily dismantle a
money system that has made them
nearly invulnerable.
As if to hammer the point home,
Elizabeth
Dole bowed
out of the
GOP presi-
dential nom-
inee race.
Her reason:
no one can
surmount the
big money
lead of Texas
Gov. George
W. Bush.
Strikingly,
Jewish
groups —
which put
out press
releases on
everything
Lack of funds drove Elizabeth Dole out of the GOP race, she said.
from the
Clean Water
want to risk going there.
Act to East Timor — suddenly had
• Today's system could be bad for
little to say.
Israel
in the long term. The reason?
Clearly, the Jewish community is
Loyalty
bought in the campaign
conflicted and confused about the
finance marketplace is not necessarily
prospect of new laws to curb the
deep. Reduced to a single
accelerating flood of money into big-
financial/political calculation, support
time politics. Their paralysis is under-
for Israel is a bargain for politicians —
standable, but it means that they will
now. A few litmus-test votes can pro-
not help shape reforms that will
duce
buckets of campaign money, and
inevitably come when public disgust
the
voters
back home, generally indif-
reaches a critical mass.
ferent to foreign policy, don't care.
Here are a few reasons for commu-
But potential upheavals in the
nal campaign finance ambivalence:
political climate such as a new Arab
• The current system has been a
oil boycott or a sharp economic down-
boon to Israel, at least in the short term.
turn that creates unpalatable choices
Congress has become a bastion of
between foreign aid and vital domestic
support not because lawmakers from
programs could change that equation.
rural Kentucky or militia-infested
Will lawmakers who now vote for
Montana love the Jewish state. Dozens

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10/29
1999

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of pro-Israel political action commit-
tees, bundlers who gather together
individual contributions for a candi-
date and private givers have created a
powerful web of support that tran-
scends the Jewish community's demo-
graphic limitations. Lawmakers who
defy the pro-Israel lobby on litmus-
test issues such as aid and strategic
cooperation understand with perfect
clarity that contributions will shift to
their opponents.
The watered-down McCain-
Feingold bill dealt only with "soft
money," not a primary vehicle for pro-
Israel campaign finance. But Jewish
activists, recognizing a slippery slope
when they stepped on one, didn't

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