Public Campaign had a great blog post this morning that looked at political hypocrisy toward disclosure of money in politics. The post was prompted by this morning’s Senate Rules hearing on the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act of 2012 (DISCLOSE Act). According to the post:

Transparency should be easy. It used to be, at least. But like so many other issues in Washington, it has become political.

If Senators at the hearing use language like “chilling speech” or “silencing political opponents,” to describe the DISCLOSE Act, it’s important to remember that many of these same members didn’t always see transparency as so draconian.

Others, including Sunlight, have also looked into this hypocrisy. You might be surprised at just how often politicians have taken a stand for transparency but then abandoned ship when it really counted. Or maybe you wouldn’t. It is politics, after all.

The DISCLOSE Act has now been introduced in both the House and the Senate. We feel strongly that this is a necessary response to the influx of undisclosed money that is pouring into this election cycle due to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and we urge these politicians, as well as their colleagues, to stand up for transparency.