Posted on 09/05/2004 8:24:33 PM PDT by ZULU
In this issue of "Perspective, the Star-Ledger Editorial Section, there was a feature called "Campaigns, Codey, and Corzine"
The newspaper threw out the following question:
"The so-called Swift Boat ads raise an issue that applies to both parties. The president(sic), whose candidacy the Swift Boat faction (sic)is supportin, says he doesn't think their ads are appropriate. Butdoes the structure of our election laws provide an invitation for a cabdidate to take the high road and let a theoretically unaffiliated group be his attack dog?
KEAN: Yes. The law is not sufficient. These ads by these unaffilaited groups raising money to attack Democrats or Republicans shouldn't be allowed to exist. They shouldn't be affiliated with a candidate. And that, by the way, is a problem for our courts, not our parties. The founding fathers (sic) of our constitution (sic) would turn over in their graves if they thought free speech was defined by groups like these outside the political structure"
This man is an attorney and the Dean of a "respected" University.
Yet he really believes the Founding Fatherds would be outraged by private citizens exercizing their First Amendment Rights to express what they knew to be true about a political candidate.
I would remind Mr. Kean that NOWHERE in the Constitution is there is ANYTHING to justify or support the existance of political parties. On the contrary, the First Amendment CLEARLY protects the rights of individual citizens, or groups of citizens to express their opinions on any political subject whatsoever.
THIS from the man who was OUTRAGED about "people" daring to critize his 9-1-1 committee and the absurb spectacle of Jamie Gorelick sitting on said committee instead of being questioned by it.
HUBRIS, thy name is TOM KEAN!!
Is this Kean character retarded or on drugs?
Is this the same "Kean" who co-chaired the 9/11 commission?
Same diff. He's a professional politician, and they don't like the idea of common folk getting involved in politics. We're not members of the old boy club.
That sure is a weird sentence. What does free speech have to do with whether or not you are inside or outside "the political structure." Does Kean think that free speech only applies if you are speaking on behalf of (or, more accurately, at the sufferance of) a recognized political party? That doesn't sound very "free" to me.
We have a right as citizens to express our opinions. How dare this idiot say this! Who the heck is he anyway?
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
The Founding Fathers were the "outside the political structure" for thier time! And way beyond Kean's view of political structures!
How dare they? Kean is a fraud. And if New Jersey Republicans have anything further to do with this man, then they are collectively a fraud as a political party.
Congressman Billybob
There were groups like the Swift Boat vets lobbying for issues before the ink was dry on the Constitution. Americans have been hushed up for years and who are we to let the ELECTED politicians dictate the rules? Sure, it's dirty as hell out there right now. Michael Moore started it off with his hit piece full of lies and I was mad as heck. But, with the Swift Boat ads and the others, there's enough information for the average American to sort out and decide who's telling the truth and who they want to vote for. What these groups did was take power away from the mainstream media. I was against CFR, but in retrospect, it was the best thing that came down from our corrupt politicians in a long time. When we don't like what is going on, who is to stop us from uniting like the Swift Boat veterans are doing? No one; and we should unite to keep the idiots like Keen out of OUR business.
The founding Fathers knew many a Tom Kean in their day and gave us the Second Amendment because of that knowledge.
Tom Kean is the wealthy, elitist Rockefeller Republican ex-Governor of New Jersey who chaired the 9-1-1 Commission.
Presently President of Drew University, a liberla New Jersey institution, he invited "his old friend" Bill Clinton, to address the student body when Clinton was running for President against Bush I.
Tom Kean doesn't believe in Second Amendment and supports "reparations" for black Americans for slavery (he sat on another commission on that subject.
Tom Kean didn't support liberal Chrissie Whitman in the Republican gubernatorial primary in New Jersey because he thought she was "too liberal". Probably because she at one time belonged to the NRA and shot firearms.
The Keans are fabulously wealthy - real old money, and obviously think they know more than common folk, who still have to work for theirs.
ONE AND THE SAME!!!!
Neither excuse applies.
Just a dripping rich Rockefeller Republican who feels common folk should listen to their liberal "betters".
Apparently he does.
The bad news is he reproduced himself and his son, Tom Kean Jr., who was elected to the New Jersey Assembly, managed to secure a New Jersey Senate seat withtout having to go through the mechanics of an open election. The seat was vacated by an existing liberal Republican - through death I believe - and according to New Jersey State Law, the political party boses were able to appoint him to the open Senate seat without him having to go through the nuisance of an open primary.
New Jersey is a strange state.
Now he has his eye on the governorship in that state.
Maybe that's why Tom Kean doesn't believe the Second Amendment gives ordinary folk the right to own a firearm.
Damn.
I figured that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.