06-01-2002
LETTERS: Letters To The Editor to the Editor for June 1, 2002
Common Cause Responds
I read with great interest your article on the internal challenges Common
Cause faces and the progress we have made in meeting them ["A
Troubled Cause," 5/25/02, p. 1573]. Of course, I would have preferred
a headline of, say, "Common Cause Revitalizes."
Working together with a coalition that includes AARP and the Sierra Club,
the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the United Methodists, Gary Bauer and
Granny D, we helped enact McCain-Feingold, the most significant victory in
a generation to break the link between big money and political influence.
Common Cause and other reformers are making winning a habit-the House
voted down a move to loosen the curbs on "Stealth PACs," and
significant election reform legislation has passed both houses.
The fight against the influence of money in politics includes lobbying the
Federal Election Commission to enforce the new law and asking Congress to
reform the FEC; updating the presidential public financing system;
defending public financing of state elections; and ending the scandal of
state judges raising contributions from those with business before
them.
In addition, we have broadened the Common Cause agenda in keeping with our
traditional concerns: watchdogging agencies such as the Securities and
Exchange Commission under Harvey Pitt; working to pass election reform to
make every vote count; and supporting efforts by leaders in both parties
to create the expectation that every American will do service to community
and nation.
At the same time, we have as you describe made progress on a long overdue
internal agenda of renewal and reorganization. We stabilized our finances,
and helped generate an additional $1.4 million in foundation support for
projects in 13 active or strategically important states. Revenues have
begun to rise, and our next mission is to grow our membership beyond the
current 200,000.
The goal of Common Cause remains ambitious: We believe that in this, the
richest and most powerful nation in the history of the world, the total of
our individual voices should matter more than money or missiles. We strive
to be the voice for millions of Americans who believe their voices are
being drowned out by the influence of money. And we believe the best
achievements of Common Cause are yet to come.-Scott Harshbarger,
President, Common Cause, Washington
More Needed Than Ever
We have worked closely with Common Cause at the state and federal levels
for a combined 30 years. Without the extraordinary activity of Common
Cause members and the coalition they formed over the past six years,
Congress would not have enacted a ban on unlimited political contributions
from corporations, unions, and the wealthy.
Common Cause has also played an important role in the election reform
legislation that has passed both houses. In our home states, it led
successful fights to open up government meetings to the public and to
disclose public documents. In Connecticut, it helped pass the ban on soft
money and rein in sham "issue ads" in state elections, and it is
currently leading the fight to fund Massachusetts' system of voluntary
public financing for state elections.
So the suggestion that "Common Cause has largely been a single-issue
group, and that issue is probably going away" is not consistent with
our experience. With major reform efforts pending on the state and federal
levels, the reform fight is more active than ever before, and Common Cause
is more needed than ever.- Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., Rep. Christopher
Shays, R-Conn., Washington
Touting Diesel
Erin Heath's story "40 Miles Per Gallon in an SUV?" [5/11/02, p.
1386] missed one of the most realistic, available, affordable, and
promising technologies for getting more fuel efficiency from
SUVs-high-efficiency clean diesel engines. They are efficient, clean,
quiet, and high performance, and lower in emissions; that's why more than
30 percent of all new European vehicle purchases (and more than 80 percent
of luxury vehicles) are powered by diesel engines.
While there are still plenty of challenges ahead for clean diesel
technology, including winning consumer acceptance and meeting the EPA's
future emissions standards, using more clean diesel engines makes sense
for both energy and environmental policy.-Allen Schaeffer, Executive
Director, Diesel Technology Forum, Frederick, Md.
One Small Gripe
Sydney Freedberg Jr.'s article about information usage ["IT Changes
Everything," 5/11/02, p. 1378] was very informative, and I plan to
pass it on to some colleagues. However, I do have one gripe. In the
article, Mr. Freedberg uses as an example the issuance of visas to the
September 11 hijackers, six months after their deaths. This is an
incorrect statement. The visas were issued much earlier. What was issued
six months after their deaths were notification letters to the flight
schools that the visas had been approved, and that the students had valid
student visas. This process was virtually automated, as the American
public has insisted that its government do, to cut costs. What failed was
the stopping of the issuance of form letters. The actual processing of the
application had occurred much earlier, before 9/11.
Perhaps this demonstrates just how hard it is to get useful, accurate
information. It's too bad that the government not only has to fight the
battle of trying to make information useful, it too often must also fight
bad press that is based on bad information.-William Ward, Rockville,
Md.
National Journal
