Both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar both now have Super PACs supporting them. They are accepting financial help from these Super PACs. As the OpenSecrets folk report, we’re not going to find out who’s running these things until a substantial way down the line. The reason for this is that they both would like to be President of the United States one day, and this is the way you get to do that. In fact, they don’t even have any control over who wants to establish a Super PAC. These are not my rules. These are Anthony Kennedy’s rules.

This is more likely to be an issue for Senator Professor Warren than it is for Klobuchar. SPW made a lot of noise for a long time inveighing against Super PACs. She was asked her about what appears to be an about-face. This is what she said, via Real Clear Politics:



So, look, the first day I got in this race I said I hope every presidential candidate who comes in will agree no super PACs for any of us. I renewed that call dozens of times, and I couldn’t get a single Democrat to go along. Finally we reached the point a few weeks ago where all the men who are still in this race and on the debate stage all had either super PACs or they were multibillionaires and could just rummage around in their sock drawers to find enough money to be able to fund a campaign. And the only people who didn't have them were the two women. And at that point, there were some women around the country who said, 'You know, that’s just not right.’ So here's where I stand: if all the candidates want to get rid of super PACS, count me in. I'll lead the charge. But that's how it has to be. It can't be the case that a bunch of people keep them and only one to two don’t.



This is not a great answer, but it’s the only one that Justice Kennedy’s opinion left open to anyone who wants to run for president, unless they happen to be Michael Bloomberg. Even Bernie Sanders conforms to it, although his people make the risible claim that Our Revolution isn’t a Super PAC because they spend the money on legal pads instead of television ads. From the Associated Press:



Our Revolution spokesman Paco Fabian said the group did nothing wrong. He also differentiated its aim from conventional super PACs that spend large sums on TV ads supporting candidates, while adding that the vast majority of its money comes from small-dollar donors who gave on average about $20 per contribution in 2018. “We invest our money ... in things like organizing and phone banks and canvassing voters on issues that matter. We aren’t running ads or doing glossy mailers,” he said. Sanders’ campaign did not respond to a detailed list of questions from The Associated Press.



(Not for nothing, but those of you hankering for an extended Warren-Sanders showdown, this issue may get you one in South Carolina next week. And to those folks who seem to believe that SPW's only remaining function in the campaign is to be their suicide bomber against Sanders, please shut up.)



The only rule that would be a deal-breaker for me would be that candidates and their campaigns cannot direct, or coordinate with, the Super PACs. Short of that, what Warren said, essentially, was said better by the great political strategist Bruno Gianelli after he was called in to rescue the struggling re-election campaign of President Jed Bartlet, which was being run by idiots until he got there. Anyway, these are Anthony Kennedy’s rules, and everybody has to play by them.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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