April 30, 2005
When the regulatory arm of the congressionally established, presidentially signed and Supreme Court blessed abridgment of Freedom of Speech known as campaign finance reform was ordered by the courts to take a closer look at regulating political speech on the internet, I wrote to the bill's main sponsors, as well as my own senators.
Connecticut Senator Joseph Leiberman's office responded with a carefully crafted canned response outlining the senator's carefully nuanced position on the Patriot Act. The Leiberman response at least came via email. Making it easy to ridicule share with my readers. I have yet to hear back from the Senator's staff as to what the connection is between my letter on BCRA and the Patriot Act.
Today I head from the Senate's leading RINO John McCain. And while his people did manage to send a canned response dealing with the correct issue, they sent it on paper. So in order to ridicule share it with you, I am going to have to do the work. On a side note, the letter was produced using a monospaced typewriter style font with no signs of kerning. I would guess it was done on a letter printer of the kind I had many many years ago when I used to write using WordStar. (Are you getting that CBS?)
The letter starts:
Dear Mr. Macklin:
Thank you for contacting me regarding campaign finance reform and “527 Groups”. I appreciate you taking the time to share your wiews.
I actually expressed no view whatsoever on the topic of 527s so I am assuming this is the standard canned response to anyone writing to the senator complaning about campaign finance reform. That being the case I thought I would do my best to answer points the senator makes in his letter by contrasting them with my original. (The full text of which is in the extended entry.)
For example, I would contrast his trite opening line with this statement from my letter and wonder if this is the view he appreciated me sharing:
I will do whatever I can including blogging either independently or in coordination with anyone and everyone willing to work toward the goal of you being voted out of the Senate.
From the Senator:
As you know, after seven years of sometimes fierce and vigorous debate on the issue, President Bush signed the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) into law on march 27, 2002. [Bush signed it so don't blame me. Notice also that the acronym drops the “F” because its not really about finance its about regulating speech.] On December 10, 2003, the Supreme Court, in McConnell v. FEC, upheld the constitutionality of key provisions of BCRA dealing with soft money and electioneering communications.I'll answer that with the opening of my letter to the Senator
I am writing you as an exercise of my increasingly limited right to freedom of speech. A right that has been grievously abridged by the campaign finance legislation you authored. This appalling act of hubris is matched only by the act of the president signing the bill into law and the supreme court upholding it as Constitutional.For more on my opinion of this SCOTUS opinion go here.
The letter continues:
This legislation ended the practice of the President, party leaders, and members of Congress from soliciting huge donations from corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals. BRCA's overriding goal was top reduce the corrupting influence of unlimited soft money contributions to political parties, usually solicited by federal candidates and office holders.My take:
Sirs you are elected enact legislation and to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not to write legislation eroding the Constitutionally protected rights of American citizens. You claim that the purpose of your attack on free speech is to counter the corrupting effects of money in the political process. I submit to you that money is not the source of political corruption but merely a perk of ethically corrupt politicians. Instead of attacking the right to free speech and limiting the rights of citizens to participate in the political process you should be enacting laws providing harsh penalties for political corruption.More McCain:
There can be little doubt that this new law has improved they system. Despite predictions to the contrary, the parties have thrived, raising as much in limited donations from individuals in this cycle as they did in hard and soft money combined in 2000.My original statement:
You will never succeed in removing money from politics and you will never succeed in silencing citizens who wish to be heard. If you want to eliminate corruption in politics, focus your efforts on eliminating corrupt politicians.Unfortunately, I've now used up all of my letter and only one paragraph of the Senator's. So now not only do I have to retype his letter I have to pick it apart with new material. Damn he is really making work at this. So you might be wondering what Senator McCain considers the weakness of BRCA. Basically that the FEC was too lax in restricting the rights of citizens to associate and speak as part of the political process.
While BRCA has proven successful, the recent growth of political committees commonly known as “527” groups, referring to their-exempt status under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, have emerged as a new vehicle for raising and spending illegal soft money.Those irascible commissioners went and allowed all sorts of people to speak freely about federal elections. We cannot have that. It's a federal election after all. If too many citizens participate in the process well that would be a bad thing.{snip: we all know the 527 story}
Because the FEC had failed to properly enforce federal law and require the 527 groups to register as political committees, I have introduced legislation along with Senator Feingold that would require all 527s to register as political committees unless they raise and spend money solely in connection with non-Federal candidate elections. It is unfortunate that Congress must take legislative action requireing the FEC to properly enforce the law, but we cannot allow the obstinate acts of non-elected commissioners to obstruct the law and to dilute the influence that average American's have in determining who will lead their country.
It is clear that the Senator is not done in his efforts to limit debate as part of federal campaigns. It is clear the he is not done with his efforts to erode our First Amendment protected right to free speech. It is clear that all average Americans have an interest in the good people of Arizona electing someone else to the Senate next time.
Update: Tuning Spork requested the text of the McCain letter to do his own fisking. He did a superb job. If you would like to do a little RINO hunting of your own, drop me line and I'll send you the letter.
Senator John McCain
Senator Russ Feingold
Dear Sirs,
I am writing you as an exercise of my increasingly limited right to freedom of speech. A right that has been grievously abridged by the campaign finance legislation you authored. This appalling act of hubris is matched only by the act of the president signing the bill into law and the supreme court upholding it as Constitutional.
Sirs you are elected enact legislation and to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not to write legislation eroding the Constitutionally protected rights of American citizens. You claim that the purpose of your attack on free speech is to counter the corrupting effects of money in the political process. I submit to you that money is not the source of political corruption but merely a perk of ethically corrupt politicians. Instead of attacking the right to free speech and limiting the rights of citizens to participate in the political process you should be enacting laws providing harsh penalties for political corruption.
You will never succeed in removing money from politics and you will never succeed in silencing citizens who wish to be heard. If you want to eliminate corruption in politics, focus your efforts on eliminating corrupt politicians.
I for one will not be silenced in the name of protecting corrupt elected officials. I will do whatever I can including blogging either independently or in coordination with anyone and everyone willing to work toward the goal of you being voted out of the Senate.
Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 04:01 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Posted by: Tuning Spork at April 30, 2005 11:47 AM (B1z3I)
Posted by: michele at May 09, 2005 02:32 PM (ht2RK)
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