The Federal Election Commission has filed suit against Steve Forbes and Forbes Inc. for campaign finance violations during the publisher's 1996 presidential campaign. Forbes wasn't sipping coffee with shadowy foreign businessmen. Instead he wrote a biweekly column in Forbes magazine and had the audacity to discuss current events in that column. To lead off 1999 with a case that is certain to draw attention to the commission's quixotic litigation strategies shows some nerve.
Federal law prohibits corporate contributions to federal candidates.
Contributions may be in the form of money or in-kind services, such as the publication of a campaign advertisement. Forbes's campaign began in September 1995 and ended in March 1996. Forbes indeed wrote about several of the issues the FEC identified in its complaint. He wrote about Bosnia twice. On January 1 he urged that U.S. troops remain overseas no matter what happened in Bosnia.