Posted on 02/08/2008 2:46:25 AM PST by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast
Bradley Smith, former commissioner of the Federal Election Commission and the leading legal scholar on campaign finance issues, experienced the McCain treatment firsthand. Because Smith opposed limits on political speech, he was denounced as "corrupt" by the senator... The two did accidentally meet outside a hearing room in 2004 when they were both scheduled to testify before the Senate rules committee. At first, McCain grasped Smith's outstretched hand (Smith was in a wheelchair, recovering from surgery), but when he recognized his campaign finance opponent, he snatched his hand back, snarling, "I'm not going to shake your hand. You're a bully. You have no regard for the Constitution. You're corrupt."
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
John McCain - just flush twice.
Ooops. Mkjessup was looking for an “apologist”. My bad.
NurdlyPeon: “apoplectic (adjective) 1.furious. Also, enraged, furious irate, beside yourself”
AW! I got your point without having to see the definition. Don’t I earn a cookie or something?
ping
McCain is the one who really needs a cookie (to replace the ones he has lost).
A talk show is a privately-run business, just as a newspaper. Do you also complain that newspapers don’t give a fair and balanced view, that they don’t has as many conservative editorialists as liberal?
And to compare a call screener to the Founding Fathers’ silence is the epitome of comparing apples to oranges. First, Lincoln wouldn’t have a problem with McCain. He censored many newspapers in the north for presenting arguments against some of Lincoln’s moves, even those that supported him overall. Some went to jail for the tenure of the CW.
Next, the other Founding Fathers are patently NOT silent on the issue. They have told all future generations exactly where they stand on political speech. It’s in a series of documents known as the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
FYI: the 1st Amendment expressly states that congress (meaning the House of Representatives and the Senate) shall pass no law abridging the right of the people to free speech.
Now, while you may think that what they meant was that Larry what’s his name has a right to print dirty pictures, what they were actually referring to was that people have a right to free political speech, and that nothing should abridge that right.
McCain-Feingold is a direct abridgment of that right. Go read the bill. McCain assaulted the USC, no matter how much you may like him and want to defend him. For him to think that he is somehow defending the USC is delusional.
Amen to that. There have been times over the years that I saw him with a look in his eyes that couldn't be interpreted as anything but insanity peeking through the facade. The really sorry thing I see about the state of our country is that I believe that an insane McCain would be better for the Nation than any of those still in the contest, on either side of the aisle.
Like Rush says, we have 300 million citizens in this country and this is the best we can do for candidates to run it - it says something about what we've become.
More than ever, I'm for term limits - they stay in a position of power for so long that they end up thinking it's their right and duty to become despots and put their thumbs on the "little people".
I wonder how this is a first amendment issue. It’s campaign finance reform. I’ve yet to hear a word from Washington, Lincoln, Jackson, Hamilton or Grant. They have been silent.
No one has been denied a chance to speak.
For that matter, talk radio squelches free speech on a daily basis with screeners and the hosts ability to unplug the caller and yet continue as if the
There is a difference between talk radio and the Constituition. Talk radio is a free market enterprise...you dont have to listen. About %99.9999 of all US radios have a tuner knob or button so you can change the station.
I cannot just willy-nilly leave America and find another Constitution. I like our Constitution and do not like a liberal McCain tampering with it.
It’s his treachery on immigration.
(Picture collage by Sir Francis Dashwood)
Yours is the best advice any conservative could take. We are going to need to stick together now, more than ever.
Oh, I think Conservatives have sprinted right past apoplectic and stopped at furniture chewing and got a fistula because they ate the furniture because they did not want to sit on THAT furniture...LOL!
Hey, it worked for Caligula....
Wise words, indeed.
John Dole said this?
John Dole of Keating Five Fame?
Bwahhahahaha He's toast the minute his friends in the media make their move.
It's the price of being right.
Not true. McCain-Feingold has penalties for political speech within a certain number of days before an election, which is specifically targeting talk radio.
A radio host is not the government, which is the only entity that can deny free speech unconstitutionally. Individuals and private business can do as they please.
Let’s see. I can’t broadcast my support for a named candidate 30 days before the primary or 60 days before the general election. That seems to infringe upon my free speech.
As far as your radio talk show example, that apples and pomegranates.
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