POLITICS - Kerry's Money

Here's something that I don't understand about some of these arguments about the source of Kerry's money.

Has special interest money hurt Bush at all?

Is Bush really going to bring this up in the debates?

The Boston Globe reports that Kerry has accepted "...Kerry's history of taking more money from lobbyists and interest groups than any other senator in the past 15 years, nearly $640,000 in all."

Over the course of four Senate runs, that amounts to about $160K per election cycle, or less than $40K a year. Considering that Kerry sorta refuses PAC money, this doesn't seem like an outrageous amount of money. Also, there are very few indications in Kerry's voting record that a donation was a result of favorable influence. Yes, he has received money from groups who were on the receiving end of a good vote or influential letter. On the other hand, he has also voted against the interests of these lobbyists and special interests, too.

But this is the last issue that the Republicans want to bring to the forefront of the political debate. If the public goes over Kerry and Bush's finance and voting records, they'll lynch Bush in the streets. No, Karl Rove would like the Dems to tear up each other's credibility over this issue now, and become too fearful to bring it up again in the national election.