Supreme Court Handing Down Ruling in Campaign Finance Reform (main parts upheld)

FOX News | 10 Dec 2003 | FOX News

[July 4th]

Reports that main portions of McCain-Feingold are now being upheld! People currently wading through a decision of over 300 pages.

[Zack Nguyen]

You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents.

Are you kidding? If anything, campaigns were even more vicious in the early 19th century than they are today. The invective thrown back and forth between the party newspapers would make your jaw drop.

Congress has the right to regulate elections, but not free speech. That is what this bill is about.

[MEG33]

No

[Mo1]

Information will be restricted, that's the point. I've used the word "restricted."

OK .. my bad

Now .. do you really think they won't be able to make their point in future ads??

[4CJ]

We don't need you in congress, we need you to replace Justice O'Conner.

[ought-six]

"We are now no better than the soviet union."

Yup, I'm afraid you're right. At least our women, generally speaking, are better looking. But that will change when the lez troglodytes come to power and outlaw beauty in all its forms, and make beauty punishable by death. Be aware folks! They're coming after our guns very shortly!

[concerned about politics]

So, you are admitting that this law restricts free speech.

Oh sure, but reading this thread you'd think we were all being lined up for the ovens! LOL. "God no! It's the end times! I just knew it!!!!"
I'd like to hear what really happened first, wouldn't you? At the end of the day?

[Wallace T.]

The "soft money" issue only became a matter for concern when special interest groups, usually conservative ones like the Christian Coalition or the NRA, used funds from contributors to topple liberal incumbents. This was particularly true in the 1994 election cycle, when numerous Congressmen who supported the assault weapons ban were defeated. The "soft money" loophole was designed in the post-Watergate "reform" period, when special interest groups were mostly on the left, e.g., civil rights groups, labor unions, feminist organizations. In other words, when it was Ralph Abernathy, Lane Kirkland, or Gloria Steinem wielding the soft money, there was no problem, but when it was Pat Robertson or Wayne LaPierre that used soft money, there developed a problem, at least to the liberal establishment.

The special interest groups were a problem not only to the liberals, but to the old guard of the Republican Party, that is, the so-called country club Republicans. There were considerable cultural clashes between these country clubbers and the middle and lower classes that paid dues to the NRA or attended the evangelical churches where Christian Right sentiment was strong. A good example of the country club type is Senator John McCain (the McCain of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill), something of a military aristocrat by background, as a third generation senior officer. His wife, the heiress to a beer distributorship in Arizona, certainly comes from a wealthy (and some would say, Mafia connected) background. By sponsoring this bill, McCain and others of his ilk have succeeded in weakening one of the principal tools of leverage that conservatives have in the GOP.

As for Bush and his advisors, who knows? They need both the country clubbers and the pro-gun and pro-morality crowd to successfully get re-elected. It looks like they punted and hoped for the best.

[saberpride]

go to foxnews.com

[justshutupandtakeit]

The A and S acts made it a crime to LIE about the government. Truth was a defense to charges under those acts but NOT under the State laws which Jefferson's supporters used to prosecute and silence his enemies. See Croswell vs. New York for an example of such persecutions.

[E.G.C.]

I don't know about that. we'll see what happens. Rush is coming up next on WBAP.

[jwalsh07]

Here's the opinion in HTML in all its ugly gore(an apt word, no?)

A more obtuse, unreadable opinion than will ever be likely to be repeated....

until the next one that is.

[WackyKat]

would smile with favor upon a law that cut to the heart of what the First Amendment is meant to protect: the right to criticize the government."

Worth repeating

[hellinahandcart]

I said I was voting for him because of the war, what more do you want? He don't got my love no more. That's that.

I was wrong to trust in the court. Bush was wrong to trust in the court.

I wouldn't feel good voting for myself after having been SO DAMNED WRONG about something SO DAMNED IMPORTANT. I might do it anyway, but I couldn't be proud of it.

[JCEccles]

Apparently, Jusice Scalia is one of those "foamers" that justshutupandtakeit is sighing over.

[Who is John Galt?]

Bump!

;>)

[ought-six]

"I think it's pretty safe to say that the GOP majority in the house and senate will be gone by 2006. They don't deserve they power we trusted them with."

I agree with you. It's getting very close to the time when we will have to man the ramparts and the barricades, because a very hard rain is gonna fall soon, I'm afraid.

[Dane]

I'm curious though, does the slow boil in the frog pot ever bother you?

Not me. I didn't vote for or help elect, by way of third party, the person(Clinton) who appointed two, and most recently appointed, out of the five of the consenting justices(Ginsberg and Breyer).

And I know you didn't either, JW, so I am not accusing you.

[Beenliedto]

They're coming after our guns very shortly!

We've got to take this to the ballot box.

Vote for no one who doesn't actively support the Second Amendment.

[Congressman Billybob]

I said that major portions of this law would be struck down. I'm reading the thread NOW to find out which portions WERE struck down.

John / Billybob

[Moby Grape]

I'll give you a heads up...I have been listening to Rush:

"It is almost over (the country)."

"If you think this does not effect you, you are wrong."

"I CANNOT believe that this has happened".