September 7, 2006
Time For This Farce To End
So declares Ryan Sager in the New York Post
The Federal Election Commission last week declined to loosen the muzzle. On a proposal to exempt "grass-roots lobbying" (formerly known as "speech" or "petitioning the government for a redress of grievances"), it deadlocked, with all three Democrats voting to leave the restrictions in place.This, though the grassroots-lobbying proposal was backed by people from the ACLU to the AFL-CIO to the Chamber of Commerce to anti-abortion activists across the country. That such groups should have to come scraping and shuffling to the FEC, begging for permission to speak, is a disgusting spectacle - yet that's where this president and the Arizona senator who presumes to the presidency have left us.
Begging for rights that McCain Feingold took away. I remain a backer of this President, but his worst offense was signing that clearly unconstitutional bill. I'll forgive and forget on steel tariffs, but Sager reminds us that he signed it knowing it was unconstitutional.
In March 2002, when President Bush signed the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance "reform" bill, his signing statement noted, "Certain provisions present serious constitutional concerns." So, he said, "The courts will resolve these legitimate legal questions."But, as Bush should have known, you can't trust those no-good "activist judges" to get anything right. And, in four years since, they haven't: The law's most heinous provision - which in effect bars unions, corporations and nonprofits from criticizing incumbent politicians' votes on controversial bills on TV or radio for 60 days before a general election and 30 days before a primary - still stands.
Club For Growth has an awesome link-fest to angry bloggers (where I saw the link to the Sager piece).
I wonder if the Roberts Court would rule differently on McConnell v FEC. Here's hoping.
The only good news is that Ryan Sager's book, The Elephant in the Room, is on the way.