"South Carolina, South Carolina, South Carolina..."
Posted on 08/30/2004 12:47:56 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16
Yesterday on Face the Nation--that venerable American institution that somehow manages to pull fewer eyeballs than reruns of Ronco informercials--Sen. John "McNasty" McCain (R-Ariz.) flipped out on the Federal Election Commission. As the Washington Times reports:
The Federal Election Commission leadership is "corrupt" and should resign for refusing to regulate political groups that are spending millions of dollars to attack both presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain said yesterday.
The Arizona Republican and co-author of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law called the FEC "disgraceful and despicable in its conduct" for allowing independent groups to exploit the Section 527 tax designation and raise millions of donations in soft money....
Mr. McCain said commission Vice Chairman Ellen Weintraub is an "apparatchik" of the Democratic Party and that Chairman Bradley Smith, a Republican appointee, does not believe in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, so both "should resign because they refuse to enforce the law."
Whole thing here. McCain's knickers are in a twist because his vaunted attempt at "campaign finance reform"--a.k.a. abridging the First Amendment--has failed miserably. Like all previous attempts to "keep the money out of politics," "level the playing field," blah blah blah, McCain-Feingold was a bust before it even got underway. McCain's just trying to shoot the messenger on this one. More pathetically still, he's even playing the shame card:
"I say shame on you, Mr. Soros, and shame on all of the people who are funding these, both from the Republican side as well as the Democrat side," Mr. McCain said. "We're not trying to shut you up. We're saying live by the same rules. In other words, the hard money that funds my campaign," Mr. McCain said.
Hey, shame on you, Sen. McCain! Since when did more political speech become a bad thing? When it's no longer under the direct control of Democrats and Republicans? While I disagree with George Soros on just about everything outside of some aspects of drug policy, his billions have helped energize the political debate. And so have the relatively paltry dollars spent by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. We know politics is show biz for ugly people. Now we're learning that it's show biz for apoplectic control freaks.
Reason interviewed FEC chair Bradley Smith here and here.
Posted by Nick Gillespie at August 30, 2004 02:54 PM
Anybody hear a PEEP out of McCampaing as $60M of thrash ads by the 527s were thrown at President Bush.
Bush has McCain.
Ceaser had Brutus.
Ya know what I mean.
I think McCain has finally lost it. It is a shame but that is my opinion.
I believe McCain is a seriously disturbed individual.
More whining & face time for John MeMeCain.
Mc Cain is more morally pompous than Jimmy Carter
No comment possible without violating Reagan's 11th Commandment and FR language restrictions.
"South Carolina, South Carolina, South Carolina..."
Gee, gives pause to wonder whether he'll trash the President when he speaks at the convention.
As is Bush for signing off on the assault.
And he will be sure that the rules shut you up.
My question for McCain and his fellow First Amendment reformers is this: What favors are the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth buying?
If it were not for McCain , there wouldn't BE any 527's in the first place. I say make your bed, sleep in it.
The argument against unlimited unregulated free political speech in an election season is that it gives people with $$$ way too political power.
But $150,000 worth of advertising (Swifties) this year has had more of an effect than the other $300 million combined. So is it really money that has the influence?
Bmp
FEC Commissioners are all Clintonistas'. Swift Vets hurt Kerry...Kerry loses...hello, Hillary in 2008. Otherwise she may never get a run at it if Kerry wins.
Senator McLame, better known as Charles Keating's man in the Senate, is peeved that his vaunted "Incumbency Protection Act" is receiving criticism. He is as sincere and useful as a rubber crutch!
Really true.
A pox of epoxy on their lips would make them Apocalyptic Epoxyliptic Apoplectics.
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