Word: money
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Panama has always been a place where strange truth gives fiction a run for its money. In John le Carre's 1996 novel The Tailor of Panama, a Cockney living in Panama City tricks money out of British intelligence by stitching up a plot involving Asians' taking over the Panama Canal. In real-life Panama, the story is no less peculiar: a new President is about to be sworn in amid charges that the government has switched control of the canal to a company allegedly controlled by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The catfight over that is just...
...think the people who collect checks over at the Republican Party would be having a terrific summer. After all, the money is coming in like bats to a barn at daybreak. In the first half of the year, the party hauled in $29.4 million in "soft money"--unlimited contributions that are used for getting out the vote, putting "issue" ads on the air and covering other big expenses. That's about 45% more than the party raised in the same period four years ago. Isn't it time to pour the margaritas, toast the revving economy and give thanks...
...party committees have raised $24.2 million--up 130% from four years earlier, a far greater jump than the G.O.P. has made. What's worse, there's the prospect of rain on the whole dollar-driven parade. The black cloud comes in the form of a proposed ban on soft money, among other campaign-finance reforms being promoted by some in the Republicans' own camp, principally Senator John McCain and Representative Christopher Shays. These advocates of reform have long tried to shut the loophole through which as much as half a billion dollars in soft money could flow this year, most...
What's more, the campaign against soft money--which is given to the party rather than to specific candidates--is being aided by an unlikely new interest group, big donors. Corporate leaders are starting to balk at a system that many view as little more than a party-led protection racket. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International, which gave more than $225,000 in the '98 election cycle, mostly to the G.O.P., is likely to cease giving soft money this fall after a vote by its board of directors, predicts chairman Ed Kangas. Several other large companies are expected...
...pressure to give soft money can be quite intense," says Kangas. "And the more a business is impacted by federal regulation, the more it feels it doesn't have a choice." While some donors give to candidates who support specific causes--Democrats who want a higher minimum wage, say, or Republicans who favor tort reform--many behave like AT&T. The telecommunications giant has doled out $305,350 to the Democrats in the first six months of the year and an additional $527,050 to the Republicans, cozying up to both parties at a time when the company is battling...