Editorial: Playing hardball with soft money

Friday, May 1, 1998 | 10:48 a.m.

TALK about crying wolf.

Congress foolishly listened to Rep. Frank Wolf when it established the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

Once again, the Virginia Republican is injecting his personal morality in an attempt to harm the gaming industry; this time he wants to interfere with the gaming industry's right to be involved in the political process. Congress would be wise to ignore the cries from the man who blames gaming for nearly all of society's ills -- addiction, bankruptcy, suicide, increased crime and corruption.

Earlier this month, Wolf sent a letter to the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic national committees, pleading with them to stop accepting donations from the gaming industry. But the request -- asking a political party to refuse contributions from a legal industry -- fell on deaf ears.

Not succeeding there, Wolf is now trying to inject his personal feelings into the campaign finance reform legislation pending in the House. To hear Wolf tell it, unless a ban is placed on the gaming industry's so-called "soft money" donations to political parties, society as we know it will collapse.

Nevada's two senators appropriately brought some reality to Wolf's fulminations, noting that he missed the mark in trying for a ban on soft money donations. Instead of launching an attack on the gaming industry, Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan said Wolf should focus on his own Republican leadership that had been refusing to even debate campaign finance reform.

Campaign finance reform is a complicated issue and one that needs to be debated in its totality. Fortunately, Wolf has little credibility left on this issue and is perceived as a zealot. Believing in a cause is one thing, becoming obsessed is another. The House should disregard Wolf's crusade to punish the gaming industry.