America Doesn’t Need Another CREEP

Here is another piece by Ciara Torres-Spelliscy. Go Ciara! 

Here is the beginning of the article, which appears in Guernica:

There is a fresh Super PAC on the scene called CREEP. This is an homage to the original Committee for the Re-Election of the President or (CREEP ‘72), which broke campaign finance laws in the reelection of Richard Nixon. As revealed by the Watergate investigations, sins CREEP ‘72 committed included accepting illegal, laundered corporate contributions $10,000 at a time—often in cash. The last thing this country needs is another CREEP or another Watergate.

Unfortunately, the risk of a modern, Watergate-scale money-in-politics scandal is magnified by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which invites unlimited corporate and union expenditures into elections.
June 17, 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of Watergate. Of course, saying the word “Watergate” is an instant Rorschach test. The word could mean anything from an edifice, to an illegal entry, to an Executive exit. What was actually at the heart of the scandal was not a botched burglary, but rather good old-fashioned corruption and graft.