Obama steps into the muck

No one expected President Obama and his fellow Democrats to disarm in the face of what is almost certain to be a vicious and ridiculously well-financed attack campaign this summer and fall from corporate-backed Super PACs and groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But the Obama campaign’s announcement late Monday that the President has blessed his own Super PAC, Priorities USA Action, and that senior officials in his administration will help it raise money remains deeply disappointing.

Obama raised nearly $745 million in 2008, largely in small donations from individuals and without Super PAC help, and he has an experienced, disciplined team capable of doing it again. He also enjoys the advantages of incumbency, which guarantees that the attention of the press and much of the public will be focused — free of charge — on everything his campaign says and does until Election Day.

In turning his supporters loose to join Republicans in soliciting six- and seven-figure donations from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals, the President has stepped down from that lofty perch to the level of his adversaries.

Former Sen. Russ Feingold, in comments Tuesday to the Huffington Post, summed up the situation nicely. “It guts the president’s message…” he said. “To me this is dancing with the devil.”

Feingold shares the worries Common Cause has voiced repeatedly that the big investors in Obama’s PAC and its GOP counterparts will want something in return for their money. “There are going to be a lot of people having corrupt conversations about huge amounts of money that will one day regret that they went down the route of what is effectively a legalized Abramoff system,” he said.

While neither the President nor Vice President Joe Biden will appear at Priorities USA Action events, the Obama campaign said top officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will attend and speak. Campaign manager Jim Messina tried to soften that blow by insisting that the President’s aides won’t directly solicit donations however.

Rubbish. Anyone who attends and speaks at a fundraising event is engaged in fundraising, and both Messina and the President know it. The Obama camp’s protests to the contrary are no more credible than Newt Gingrich’s claims that the “strategic advice” he provided to corporate clients like mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not lobbying.