FC: Democratic-Republican rivalries complicate anti-spam laws

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-1024385.html

   Spam fight divides on party lines
   By Declan McCullagh
   July 9, 2003, 8:35 PM PT

   (news analysis) Once thoroughly bipartisan, the debate in Washington
   over how to reduce the flow of bulk e-mail is pitting Democrats
   against Republicans, a development that threatens to complicate
   enactment of laws regulating spam.

   Politicians on Capitol Hill have realized that their constituents are
   fed up with the ever-increasing deluge of unsolicited e-mail, and most
   legislators appear to favor Congress taking some sort of action. But
   disagreements about what action is wisest have erupted along
   traditional political fault lines that pit Republican values against
   those cherished by Democrats.

   On Wednesday, bickering erupted during a meeting of two House Energy
   and Commerce subcommittees over which of two bills--one backed largely
   by Democrats and one supported almost entirely by Republicans--would
   do a better job of reducing spam and punishing spammers.

   [...]

   One complaint Stupak lodged against the Republican-backed rival bill
   is that it expressly prohibits class action lawsuits, a favorite of
   trial lawyers, whose deep pockets make them hugely valued contributors
   to the Democratic Party. An analysis performed by Common Cause for the
   2000 election cycle calculated that trial lawyers favored the
   Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a 40-to-1 margin for
   soft money contributions, giving a total of $14.5 million to the
   Democrats.

   [...]




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