You may not know the name Rick Reed but you will.



He is the man associated with the nonprofit called the Swiftboat Veterans that did such an effective job of mortally wounding John Kerry’s run for election in 2004.



And he’s coming alive again.



Recently,he was responsible for forming a new nonprofit known as a 401 (c) (4) which is helping to support John McCain’s cash strapped campaign.



Although the campaign is only working in South Carolina, one of the early Primary States, it is a precursor of things to come.



McCain, upon learning of the effort, called Reed to ostensibly stop it, but apparently McCain’s efforts were not perceived as strong enough, and the campaign goes on.



The only problem is thanks the Supreme Court’s recent decision, this form of nonprofit does not have to disclose where it gets its money, whether its donors have already contributed to the legal limit and how it spends its money.



The irony is that McCain has fought against such bills having written with Senator Feingold the McCain-Feingold bill that outlaws such funding.



The problem is that this is only the tip of the iceberg.



Candidates can expect to see much more of this type of activity in the weeks and months ahead and, as we’ve seen before, despite the gathering of tens of millions of dollar by the campaign, vested interests can raise many times those amounts to influence the outcome of the campaign and have pretty much free reign as to how they do it….



Apparently, the only limitation of the nonprofits is that the operators must be able to argue that the issue that they support takes precedence over the candidate that supports that issue. And that provide a great deal of latitude to a nonprofit that is set up to do mortal damage to its political enemies….



Clearly, the Courts have opened a Pandora’s box here that just might allow vested interests to change the course of a political campaign and not always for the better.



Only time will tell whether the Court’s willingness to support such activities is really in the best interests of the people. In the meantime, we can expect that Rick Reed and his kind will not stand idly by.



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon