Free Republic

If American democracy is finally done in, the perpetrators will unlikely be Hitlerian figures whose strutting authoritarianism is plain to see, but a collection of well-meaning, schoolmarm-like activists who aim to restrict our freedoms for our own supposed good. They may well be members of Common Cause. You never figure an outfit like Common Cause to be a danger to the republic's must crucial principles, do you? But be vigilant: Common Cause is in the forefront of those cutting the First Amendment down to an imperceptible size. The group does not want anything blocking the way as government squelches free...

Legal abuse of the First Amendment Those who enthusiastically applauded the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the McCain-Feingold campaign “reforms” last year may come to rue the day they got what they asked for. The free-speech guarantees written into the First Amendment were not penned because the Founding Fathers were obsessed with pornography or saw the need to protect future pedophiles. They were included because they believed Americans had to be free to debate the issues of the day and relative merits of candidates and parties striving for power in the new democratic republic they were creating. The language of the...

Wait! Don’t run. This is important. The preamble may be (arguably) humorous, but this is serious business. One of my readers, in an e-mail, lambasted me and some other bloggers who are or have been in the military for not commenting on the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in favor of the McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Bill. To be honest, sometimes I know better than to discuss a subject about which I’m a bit ignorant or that I feel may be a bit above my skill level. Such was the case with this one. So I waited, read and learned a...

Some people would have you believe that everything wrong with politics can be traced to money. Thanks to Political Action Committees (PACs); labor unions; corporate lobbyists and the evil rich, the common folk don’t stand a chance. Money flows to campaign accounts, and the recipient is forevermore beholden to the donor. Hard money, soft money, Monopoly money, it all finds it’s way to that bulging “war chest.” The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill was going to exorcise the money demon from our political soul. No more soft money, no more attack ads paid for by special interests. The fact that...

“I wonder if I shall fall right through the Earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward!” — Alice, from Alice in Wonderland Thanks to three recent, startling court decisions, free speech supporters must think they’ve fallen through the center of the Earth, too, where down is up and up is down. The first ruling was from a Circuit Court in Louisville. Judge Stephen P. Ryan issued a last-minute order blocking a new ordinance limiting the hours adult businesses can be open. Apparently, when it comes to free speech, there can...

Some state officials in Ohio seem to have strange ideas concerning political campaign finance reform. Apparently, they're content to harass low-budget political amateurs. At least they could get it right. As 2003 was ending, Jeff McNeely, a telephone company technician in Cleveland, finally was being granted some peace by the Ohio Elections Commission and the state Attorney General's Office. In 1996, McNeely campaigned as a Democrat for the Ohio House. He lost, in more ways than one. It seems that McNeely, who spent a total of $150 on his race, forgot to list a $32 expenditure on his official campaign...

GOP, watchdog groups say Democrat network breaks soft-money rules WASHINGTON — Leading campaign finance watchdog organizations as well as Republican activists intend to challenge the new “shadow” Democratic Party — a network of independent groups preparing to spend as much as $300 million on voter mobilization and pro-Democratic TV ads. The organizations — the Center for Responsive Politics, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 — contend that the pro-Democratic groups are violating prohibitions on the use of corporate and labor money for partisan voter registration and mobilization drives. Trevor Potter, chairman of the Campaign Legal Center, said the groups...

Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, already No. 2 in GOP leadership as Senate whip, apparently has his eye on the top leadership post. McConnell, a Louisville Republican, was featured in a New York Times article last weekend. The article speculated that with Senate President Bill Frist, R-Tenn., not expected to seek re-election to leadership in 2006 McConnell is likely to succeed him. University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato, an expert on Congress, agreed. McConnell "is next in line, no question about it," Sabato said. "There is a lot of speculation that Frist will not only step down as...

Candidates must take responsibility for ads ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL BY SCHUYLER KROPF Of The Post and Courier Staff If the candidates' TV ads seem slightly different for the upcoming Feb. 3 Democratic primary, it's because federal law says they have to be. As a result of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (otherwise known as McCain-Feingold), federal candidates are being made more accountable in their claims and charges. In short, they have to add a disclaimer saying they approved everything that's said, be it a statement of fact or a charge volleyed at a rival. According to the...

<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio - Political party operating accounts, which allow the parties to spend money from undisclosed donations on party-building activities, are illegal under the new federal campaign law and ought to be shut down, Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell says. However, a spokesman for Blackwell's own state party said the operating accounts aren't used on candidates and thus are perfectly legal. Blackwell said he has the solution: a bill that has been stuck in a Senate committee for nearly a year. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Randy Gardner, a Bowling Green Republican, would require disclosure of contributions to the accounts and specify how their money could be spent.</p>

Campaign Finance Is Quasi-Reformed With the Supreme Court upholding McCain-Feingold, the political hue has been changed. No longer will large corporations or labor unions be able to pad the pockets of politicians and their political parties. That coupled with the ban on political advertising by fringe groups in a period prior to elections are the mainstays of the McCain-Feingold law, which President Bush signed into law. But questions about free speech violations are running rampant across the country. Not to worry my liberal friends, groups like MoveOn.org and America Coming Together continue to search for ways around the law, as...

Campaign Finance Restrictions Violate the Constitution By Floyd Abrams {First appeared in the Wall Street Journal} Towards the end of the 1992 presidential campaign, I had "maxed out" in my contributions to the Clinton campaign. A thousand dollars for the primaries, another thousand for the general election, and I had given all that the law allows. So I was surprised to receive a call asking me if I would make an additional contribution to the Democratic National Committee. Thus did I learn the difference between "hard" money and "soft"--that is, between money to be spent on a political campaign (which...

Losing Crusade May Still Pay Dividends for a Senator WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 — Senator Mitch McConnell was such a determined opponent of the new campaign finance law that when the fight moved from Congress to the courts, he made certain the decisive case was titled McConnell vs. F.E.C. Now, with the Supreme Court validating the campaign spending restrictions enforced by the Federal Election Commission in a ruling earlier this month, Mr. McConnell will remain strongly identified with the cause, but on the losing side. That twist is not lost on advocates of restrictions on fund-raising and spending, who say the...

Election finance reformers take aim at '08 campaign Washington- Rescuing an enfeebled presidential election funding system before 2008 by enlarging the pot of matching funds for primaries and giving the money to candidates earlier is emerging as the next goal of finance reformers. Fresh off a victory this month in the Supreme Court, the lawmakers who wrote the limits on campaign donations and restric tions for the 2004 elections see an urgent need in shoring up the system for providing government money to campaigns. The four men linked by years of work on campaign spending are Sens. John McCain, Republican...

Conservative Spotlight: Americans for a Better Country In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McConnell v. FEC on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance "reform" law, conservative Americans have to realize something: Political candidates and political parties are no longer allowed full participation in political life. This abridgement of 1st Amendment free speech protections means outside, independent groups will have an expanded role in the political process—and conservative Americans seem to be just catching on to this. The media have published report after report about liberal Democratic Party activists forming huge new independent groups whose goal is to collect...

Lawmakers Pushing Campaign Finance Reform By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Rescuing an enfeebled presidential election funding system before 2008 by enlarging the pot of matching funds for primaries and giving the money to candidates earlier is emerging as the next goal of finance reformers. Fresh off a victory this month in the Supreme Court, the lawmakers who wrote the new limits on campaign donations and restrictions in place for the 2004 elections see an urgent need in shoring up the system for providing government money to campaigns. The four men linked by years of work on campaign...

McCain-Feingold leaves him tongue-tied Tuesday, December 16, 2003 Dear Editor: Exactly which part of "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging freedom of speech" did the U.S. Supreme Court not understand when it upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) which prohibits parties and interest groups from running “issue ads” naming a federal candidate for 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election? Freedom of speech and of the press were put in the Bill of Rights by the Founding Fathers for a reason, so government could not tell people what they could say,...

Doolittle: Supreme Court's Ruling Amends First Amendment Campaign Finance Regulation Upheld Washington, D.C. - House Republican Conference Secretary John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville) today said the Supreme Court has taken a dramatic step away from protecting our free speech by ruling to uphold the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). "Today the Court has failed to protect the First Amendment rights of the American people," Doolittle said. "The Constitution clearly states that 'Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech,' and yet BCRA clearly restricts Americans from freely participating in the political process. It's truly sad to see the Supreme...

<p>COLUMBUS - Former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr said that federal campaign-finance reform upheld last week by the U.S. Supreme Court amounts to the "criminalization of politics."</p> <p>It’s an argument he lost before the court, which voted 5-4 to uphold major provisions of a law designed to dampen the influence of unregulated "soft money" on elections.</p>

All speech is equal, but ... By Don Erler Special to the Star-Telegram Once upon a time, the "marketplace of ideas" determined how voters would decide elections. Just as General Motors, Toyota and BMW compete in the automotive marketplace for our business, so did candidates, parties and groups of interested citizens battle for our votes. Now campaigns have become so highly regulated that freedom of speech and press is now prohibited for specified voters and groups within the last 60 days of a general election. In order to reduce the ap-pearance of corruption caused by money in the political process,...