Integrity At The Times

its true, Miracles do happen, they can happen to you. After a stunning twofer of fairness reason this week on issues as diverse as guns and SUVs, we know get integrity and demands for consistency in application of the law from the New York F'ing Times unbaF'ingbelievable Editorial Page.

Folks, perhaps Daniel Okrent is making a change. This last week really represents to me, at least, a sea change in the attitude and reporting at the Times. Its about time. In the latest article, the Times is strongly criticizing the use of independent groups by the DNC to attack Bush and avoid Campaign finance laws.

At issue are a handful of new committees set up by Democratic operatives and dedicated to turning President Bush out of office. The groups are running advertising campaigns in 17 states to counteract Republican commercials that began last week. They insist that because they have no formal ties to the Democratic Party or to John Kerry, they are not bound by the 1974 federal election law or the more recent and restrictive McCain-Feingold law, which prohibits soft money in federal elections. The groups insist that their activities are necessary to offset a 10-to-1 fund-raising advantage in Mr. Bush's favor.

We sympathize with the Democrats' desire to level the playing field. But they do not have to subvert the law to do it. Indeed, Mr. Kerry has already announced his intention to raise as much as $80 million in smaller contributions that are legal. Mr. Kerry appears confident that the Democrats can raise money without making end runs around the reform law he voted for two years ago. Indeed, anyone who believes in the Democratic agenda ought to have similar faith that the Democrats, like the Republicans — or Howard Dean — are capable of raising a great deal of money from small donors.

In addition, anyone who was angered at phony "issue ads" in the last campaign will have little patience with the claims of one group, the Media Fund, that the ads it just unleashed are all about issues, not promoting candidates. One of the group's first broadsides declares that "George Bush's priorities are eroding the American dream," suggesting that the group's one and only ambition is to retire George Bush. That, in turn, represents an illegal use of soft money by an avowedly political group to influence federal elections.

Who knows. Maybe the planets are lining up and armegeddon is on the way.