Schumer Hit With Historic Fine

One of the loudest proponents of the campaign finance "reform" mess passed by Congress last year, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), was fined earlier this year by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for violating, you guessed it, campaign finance laws. The March ruling ordered the senator`s 1998 senatorial campaign to pay $130,000 in civil penalties, and demanded the campaign return $120,455 in illegal contributions. At just a touch over a quarter-million dollars, the decision is one of the largest financial penalties ever imposed on a member of Congress. If Schumer`s campaign was not capable of obeying the campaign finance laws in place in 1998-when they were, by most arguments, somewhat simpler than before the passage of last year`s "reforms"-one wonders what might be in store for the future.