John McCain criticizes Supreme Court decision to grant corporations rights to free speech

While prominent Democrats and their defenders regularly lambaste the Supreme Court decision that corporations are people in the Citizens United case, it is rather surprising to find a prominent Republican also taking a very jaundiced view of the decision.

  However the former Republican presidential nominee John McCain claims to be very worried by the decision. McCain noted that billionaire Sheldon Adelson may contribute up to 100 million to support the campaign of Mitt Romney through a Super Pac. While it is unusual for Republicans to worry about donations to their own party, McCain is also worried that the decision will allow unions to finance the Democrats. However the unions do not have the deep pocket of large U.S. corporations.

McCain said:“I’m not only worried about him, I’m worried about may others,”“I’ve always been concerned about the labor unions who take money from their union members and without their permission, contribute to causes that they may not support. So am I concerned about the incredible amount of money that’s washing around? Yeah.”

McCain continued in criticism of the Supreme Court decision:: “I think there will scandals as associated with the worst decision of the United States Supreme Court in the 21st century,” Since Adelson earns some of his billions from a foreign casino McCain even suggested that his donations involved foreign money entering the campaign.

McCain's musings may not sit well with Romney and his supporters. Romney himself has said that corporations are people. McCain's gloss on his statement is that Romney was saying simply that they are made up of people. For more see this article.