posted August 30, 2006 07:26 PM            

Nevertheless, George Soros and his leftist friends spent about 10 years and more than $140,000,000, (One Hundred and Forty Million Dollars) getting what came to be known as the McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance law through Congress.

Now, no ads which say bad things...or good things about candidates can be run in the weeks leading up to an election. It's an incumbent protection ACT designed to not put incumbents on the hot seat near an election with issues interest groups want to get before the public.

A ruling to relax those provisions of the law was sought at the Federal Election Commission and there was a split decision vote 3-3.

Now, given all the whining, moaning, screeching, wheezing, foot stamping and shrieking by leftist democrats that the Bush Administration is attempting to "chill" their free speech rights, you will be, no doubt, surprised to learn the 3 members who voted to NOT relax the rules are all democrats. You will also be surprised...in view of the shrieking allegations of leftist democrats...that the FEC members who voted FOR relaxing the standards are all Republicans.

I don't give a damn that Republicans voted for the McCain/Feingold bill and Bush signed it; that they signed it to get the issue off the front burner thinking it was Unconstitutional and that the Supreme Court would strike it down. This was a bill which should never have been allowed to come to the floor of either House of Congress for a vote and should have been bottled up in Committee.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

August 29, 2006
FEC Kills Political Speech During Elections

As expected, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act has forced the courts to issue a prior restraint against political speech during an election campaign. Mark Tapscott caught the story out of Washington, and laments the corrosive effect that the McCain-Feingold bill has had on freedom of speech:

Federal election regulators refused to ease limits on political advertising Tuesday, blocking an effort to let interest groups run radio and television ads mentioning elected officials within weeks of an election.

The Federal Election Commission voted 3-3 on a proposal that would have allowed such ads as long as they addressed public policy issues and did not promote, support, oppose or attack a sitting member of Congress. Supporters of the change said they wanted to strike a balance between campaign ad restrictions and constitutional free speech guarantees.

The measure failed on a tie vote with the commission's three Democrats voting against the proposal and the three Republicans backing it.

More than any other action from the BCRA, this demonstrates how the bill operates as a government-imposed safety net for incumbents. Who would have guessed ten years ago that Congress would pass a bill that would silence people who wanted to publish criticisms of incumbent politicians? Ten years ago, people wanted to implement term limits!

Mark believes that this will bury McCain's chances among conservatives for the presidential nomination in 2008. McCain had a big hill to climb in that regard anyway, but this does serve as a reminder of the kind of policy we will see from a McCain administration. His reformist bent produced the first limits on normal political speech and activity since the Sedition Act of 1918. Oddly, the same people who complain about "chill winds" when the Bush Administration answers its critics fall strangely silent when it comes to the real attack on free political speech that McCain's twisted approach to campaign finance reform represents.