Giving McCain enough rope

TownHall.com ^ | Friday, May 17, 2002 | by George Will

[JohnHuang2]

WASHINGTON--The document's title is bland: ``Reply of Senator John McCain, Senator Russell Feingold, Representative Christopher Shays, Representative Martin Meehan, Senator Olympia Snowe, and Senator James Jeffords in support of their motion to intervene as defendants supporting the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.'' But the document's message is fascinating.

File the document under: ``Give them enough rope ...'' When McCain et al. explain why they should be heard in defense of BCRA, it is clear why it is indefensible.

BCRA bans so-called ``soft money'' to political parties, money used for ``party building'' activities--voter registration, generic ``vote Republican'' or ``vote Democratic'' promotions, issue advertising and voter-turnout activities. BCRA also complicates and restricts, for the clear purpose of suppressing, all broadcast advertising by independent (nonparty) groups that refers to an identifiable federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. McCain et al. give various reasons why they will be personally harmed if BCRA is overturned.

Continues.

[JohnHuang2]

Friday, May 17, 2002

Quote of the Day by backhoe 5/17/03

[leadpenny]

McCain et al. also say that if the ban on soft money is struck down, they ``will face the strong risk that unregulated soft money contributions will again be used in an attempt to influence federal elections in which (we) are among the principal participants.''

The Supremes should not only strike it down, they should levy a fine on McLame for whining.

Also, when the Court kills this assault on free speech, 9-0, I hope they add a comment that they enjoyed doing it.

[Dante3]

I agree.

McCain is so weird (along with Al Gore). The man gives me the creeps. Just something odd about them.

Of course, no way do I agree with one of the tabloids (was it the Globe?) which quite a while ago ran an article declaring that a number of our senotors were aliens from outer space.

[Charlotte Corday]

This is an excellent column by Will. I've often thought that the best question to ask politicians who support CFR is something like: "Senator, if the influence of money on legislation is so pervasive and unavoidable, surely you can tell us about a couple of votes you yourself have sold to contributors lately...."

[Mr. Thorne]

On a related issue, I caught a snippet of news, I believe on Fox and Friends, regarding the Crusader issue.

It was pointed out that GW and Rummy were pushing to kill a weapons system made in Oklahoma (heavy pubbie) and Texas (need I say more?). One of the hosts, Doocy I think, came back with: "you mean, we might not have needed that Campaign Finance Reform law? Naaaaaaww?!" or something like that.

I just thought that was funny.