Whether it's the McCain-Feingold bill or the Shays-Meehan version, "Campaign Finance Reform" is a bad idea,
as explained below, so the two versions are lumped together on this page. Campaign Finance Reform is an
assault on free speech and a clear violation of the First Amendment.
It's bad enough that the bill was even written and put to a vote, but now all three branches of
the government have approved it, so the law is here to stay. Recently the sour fruit of this
law has materialized in the form of the MoveOn discount given by the New York Times, as explained
at the top
of this page. The CFR law appears
to limit the free speech of individuals without slowing down large activist groups.
Senator McCain was caught in his own trap, as you can read
below.
The latest: The Supreme Court pulls the plug on this nonsense
Liberals
Champion Freedom of Speech — Except in Politics. Citizens United is
a corporation that produced something called "Hillary: The Movie" and wanted to show it within 30 days
of the 2008 Democratic primaries. The lower courts said this violated the 2002 McCain-Feingold
limitations on "electioneering communications." The Supreme Court said it was free speech,
protected by the First Amendment. Over the years, supporters of campaign finance regulation, not
all of them Democrats, have argued that spending money is not speech. But it's hard to think of any
way of communicating your ideas to others, even over the Internet, without spending money.
Obama
Talks Out of Both Sides of His Mouth on Campaign Finance. Last Friday, a story by Nicholas Confessore of the New York
Times revealed that President Obama's political team is trying to raise $50 million to fund the conversion of his reelection
campaign into Organizing for Action, a "powerhouse" new national lobbying group. The story said that at least half of the
organization's budget will come from a small number of well-connected donors who each raise or contribute more than $500,000.
In return, those donors get a spot on a national advisory board, the right to attend quarterly meetings with the president and
access to other White House meetings.
President
Obama doesn't (really) care about campaign finance reform. Organizing for America, the new grassroots lobbying and
advocacy organization being run by top aides to the 2012 campaign, has set a budget of $50 million with at least half of that
total coming from large checks written by a handful of very wealthy donors, according to the New York Times' Nick Confessore.
The group has also been set up as a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization, meaning that it can not only accept unlimited donations from
individuals but that it is under no requirement to disclose the sources of those contributions.
Supreme Court rolls back
campaign spending limits. The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely
to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their
participation in federal campaigns.
Supreme Court Vindicates Political
Speech, Pulverizes McCain-Feingold. In a landmark 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court today in Citizens
United v. FEC struck down major portions of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law. The Court left
in place the disclosure requirement for corporations and the disclaimer requirement that identifies whether
an ad is not paid for by the campaign. But little else remains.
A Death Blow to McCain-Feingold.
In a not wholly unanticipated move, the Supreme Court invalidated a key portion of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform
Act of 2002 (BCFRA), also known as McCain-Feingold. The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission was split.
The First Amendment.
Real Clear Politics reports that Fox News audience numbers continue to climb while Air America has declared
bankruptcy. "According to Neilsen, Fox News drew an astonishing 6.2 million total viewers during
primetime Tuesday night [1/19/2010], compared to only 1.5 million for CNN and 1.1 million for MSNBC."
But it is not just the shifts within the industry that are tectonic. The whole scene has been disturbed
by a Supreme Court decision.
A
Resounding Defense of the First Amendment: 'Congress Shall Make No Law'. Thursday [1/21/2010],
in his resounding defense of the First Amendment in the Citizens United decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy
wrote for the majority: "[w]hen Government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to
command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses
censorship to control thought. This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think
for ourselves."
Did the
Supreme Court Just Save Newspapers? The Supreme Court's decision Thursday [1/21/2010] striking
down limits on campaign spending by corporations, which was split along ideological lines, will change the
political and media landscape in profound ways that transcend ideology. Unless Chuck Schumer and others
find a way to legislate around this, an explosion of advertising and other instruments of persuasion will
soon erupt from every corner.
A Victory for Free Speech.
Can the government suppress free speech critical of elected politicians? In the home of the First Amendment,
that may seem an unusual question to pose. But that was the question before the Supreme Court this week, as
it handed down a landmark ruling in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Obama: Ruling a blow to democracy.
President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to attack this week's Supreme Court ruling that the government
cannot ban campaign contributions by corporations, saying it is a blow to his efforts to rein in special interests in
Washington. "This ruling strikes at our democracy itself," Obama said.
A Free Speech
Landmark. The 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Act, aka McCain-Feingold, banned corporations
and unions from "electioneering communications" within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general
election. Yesterday [1/21/2010], the Justices rejected that limit on corporate spending as unconstitutional.
Corporations are entitled to the same right that individuals have to spend money on political speech for or
against a candidate.
Free
Speech for Corporations. During the 2008 campaign, a group called Citizens United put together
a documentary, "Hillary: The Movie." Remember seeing it on cable TV? No, you don't, because the
organization decided it couldn't show the film without the risk of felony prosecution. It had every
reason to be afraid.
A welcome
blow for free speech. An essential truth lays at the heart of the Supreme Court's landmark
ruling Thursday in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. As Justice Anthony Kennedy
observed, "if the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or
associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech."
President Obama Flunks
Campaign Finance 101. The president's reactions betray a profound ignorance of campaign
finance. ... Obliviousness was compounded by amnesia and denial. If excessive spending hurts democracy,
President Obama is the Grim Reaper. In 2008, Obama outspent Senator McCain more than two to one ($720 million
to $333 million), and, of the utmost relevance, he declined public matching funds (a keystone of campaign
finance reform) so as to spend without limit.
Older news and commentary:
DNC to Court: Small donations at risk.
The U.S. Supreme Court shouldn't upend the campaign finance landscape because it could stifle the type of small donations
that helped power Barack Obama to victory in last year's presidential election, according to the Democratic National
Committee. That's one of the arguments the DNC made in a brief filed Monday [8/3/2009] with the high court, urging
it not to overturn long-standing restrictions on corporate spending in political campaigns in a case it's scheduled
to rehear next month.
Justices to Revisit Campaign Finance.
The Supreme Court next week will hear arguments on whether corporations and unions have a right to spend their
money on campaign advertisements, in a case that tests not only a central pillar of federal campaign-finance
law but the court's own respect for precedent.
Unfair, Unbalanced, but Free. Among
other things, Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart claimed last March that nothing in the Constitution
prevents Congress from extending its ban on "electioneering communications" — the FEC's justification
for blocking the anti-Clinton film — to print or the Internet. This time around, the Supreme
Court will consider whether the ban should be scrapped altogether, along with its dubious constitutional rationale.
Citizens united against
censorship. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments today regarding Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission. The case could decide what political speech is prohibited by federal campaign finance laws. To
put it simply, campaign finance laws constrain free speech.
Court Debates Campaign Law. The Supreme
Court heard arguments Wednesday [9/9/2009] over whether government limits on corporate and union political spending violate
free-speech rights, in a case that could prove pivotal in a longstanding constitutional debate.
Speak Freely. Signs are that
the McCain-Feingold law restricting campaign messages will soon be significantly reined in. What made Congress
think it could flout the First Amendment anyway?
Dems to Give Cash Collected in
Buckets to Charity. Buckets of cash collected for a state legislative candidate during a major
fundraising dinner put the Tennessee Democratic Party on the wrong side of state campaign finance regulations.
The Media and the First Amendment.
Pundits have condemned the Post for acting as an influence peddler. But other news publications routinely
host similar events. This shouldn't come as a shock. Media corporations have always had the privilege
of influencing politics without the restrictions — like campaign finance laws — that
other corporations face. So while this episode has been treated as a scandal of journalistic ethics,
it is really about double standards.
Justices Move Political Censorship Case.
Next year, the Supreme Court can throw open the doors for voters to learn the truth about those seeking power in
America. Or not. In an unusual move, the Court declined to decide a case on Americans' right
to speak out on candidates during presidential elections that was argued this year. Instead, they will
rehear it this fall, focusing on a new legal issue in a case that will pit two legal heavyweights against each
other.
Supreme Court reconsiders McCain-Feingold.
In a sign that the Supreme Court is seriously considering overturning one of the underpinnings of modern campaign finance
rules, Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday [6/29/2009] announced that justices would rehear a case challenging restrictions
on corporate-funded campaign ads.
Supreme Court considers
anti-Clinton movie. When a special three-judge panel considered the scathingly critical
Hillary: The Movie last year, the judges deemed it a campaign ad with the unmistakable message
that people should vote against then-presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton because she "is unfit for
office." The conservative Citizens United, which produced the 90-minute movie partly with corporate funds,
said it was merely making a documentary about the issues. The court rejected that argument and agreed with
the Federal Election Commission that the movie was subject to campaign-financing law restricting when messages
can be aired and advertised.
Sound of Silence: Hollywood Hypocrisy on the First Amendment.
If the government has its way, Eminem's new single could land him in jail, Jon Stewart's book, America, could have
been banned, and advertising Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 on television or radio would have been a felony.
That's what the government argued two weeks ago in my organization's Supreme Court case against the Federal Election
Commission, Citizens United v. FEC.
Liberals'
dirty shame. While Frank Rich et al are preening on their soapboxes for making smut as American
as apple pie, the government, under Republican and Democratic presidents alike, has been banning criticism of
politicians. Just last week, the Obama administration argued before the Supreme Court that it has no principled
constitutional problem with banning books. The case before the court, Citizens United vs. Federal Election
Commission, involves a documentary-style film, "Hillary: The Movie," that ran afoul of campaign finance laws
designed to censor so-called stealth ads as well as electioneering paid for by corporations or unions.
Government Claims Power
to Ban Books and Speech. On Mar. 24, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Citizens United v. FEC,
the latest installment in an ongoing series of challenges to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), better
known as McCain-Feingold. This case has far-reaching implications for the future of campaign activities,
and draws an important line between the right of citizens to speak out and the power of government to imprison
them if they do.
Felonious Advocacy: Thanks to campaign finance
reform, activists can go to jail if their movie makes a politician look bad.
A Clear Danger
to Free Speech. From its conception, the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law was an assault on
the First Amendment. Signing that unconstitutional bill into law, knowing it to be unconstitutional, was
one of the worst moments of George W. Bush's presidency. Yet this malignancy lurks in the legal code,
widely accepted, even celebrated. Now Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart has gone before the Supreme
Court arguing that McCain-Feingold gives the government the right to ban books and films. He's right, it
does. And for that reason, McCain-Feingold should be nullified.
Democrats are cooking up an end run around the campaign finance laws. The Akaka Bill: A
Cash Cow for Democrats. Obama's multi-billion dollar nationwide scheme to circumvent campaign
spending laws comes neatly disguised as a Hawaii-only deal for "reconciliation" and "justice". "Campaign
finance" isn't even in the bill's description. It is called the Akaka Bill. Reintroduced
February 4 for the 2009 Congressional session as S381 and HR862, the Akaka Bill creates a process
to establish a Native Hawaiian Tribal Government.
The $639 Million Loophole: We're
fresh off the most expensive election cycle in history, in which the winning candidate raised record amounts of money
while opting out of the campaign finance limits. With victory in hand, Barack Obama's allies now want to return to
the alleged virtues of public money. If there was ever a demonstration of the folly and hypocrisy of campaign
finance reform, this would be it.
The
Four Hard Lessons of Campaign 2008: [#2.] Campaign finance "reform" will always have a
disproportionately negative impact on Republicans. In one of politics' great ironies, the campaign finance
reform legislation that John McCain created ultimately crippled his campaign (especially after Barack Obama broke
his word and declined public financing). Given the press' liberal leanings, laws that stifle competing
voices have a disparate — and negative — impact on Republicans, who need independent
campaigns to counter the media's influence and get the conservative message out.
Rich
People Versus Politicians: The McCain-Feingold law was to get "money out of politics" but more
money was spent in the 2008 election cycle than ever. The only way to reduce corruption and money in
Washington is to reduce the power politicians have over our lives. James Madison was right when he
suggested, "All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
GOP files suit
to undo McCain rules. The Republican Party will file federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to
overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations, Republican National Committee Chairman
Robert M. "Mike" Duncan revealed Wednesday night [11/12/2008] at a private dinner with the nation's
Republican governors. The move is considered a slap in the face of the Republican Party's failed 2008
presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was dramatically outspent by Democrat Barack Obama,
and of President Bush, who signed McCain-Feingold into law in 2002.
Obama likely to escape campaign
audit. The Federal Election Commission is unlikely to conduct a potentially embarrassing audit
of how Barack Obama raised and spent his presidential campaign's record-shattering windfall, despite
allegations of questionable donations and accounting that had the McCain campaign crying foul. Adding
insult to injury for Republicans: The FEC is obligated to complete a rigorous audit of McCain's campaign
coffers, which will take months, if not years, and cost McCain millions of dollars to defend.
Election laws stifle
speech. This election season demonstrated once again that any group that wants to even mention
a candidate or ballot issue has to get permission from the government first. Florida's campaign finance laws
have taken the regulation of political speech to new and ridiculous lengths, leaving practically
no room for free speech about politics.
High
Court to hear appeal over anti-Clinton movie. The Supreme Court will hear an appeal from a
conservative group that wanted to promote and air its anti-Hillary Clinton movie without complying with a
landmark campaign finance law. The justices, in an order Friday [11/14/2008], said they will review a
lower court ruling that Citizens United's "Hillary: The Movie" was clearly intended to influence people to
vote against Clinton in her run for the presidency.
Campaign Finance Reform Meets
Unintended Consequences. People like the idea of campaign finance reform. Yet, campaign
finance law, like all of government's laws, is subject to a still more powerful law: the law of
unintended consequences. In the last couple of elections, Ada Fisher, a retired doctor in North
Carolina, ran for Congress. She ran on a shoestring budget, campaigning out of her own car, making
her own signs and buttons. For staff, she relied exclusively on volunteers. A recent college
graduate volunteered to be her campaign treasurer. It was supposed to be fun and educational. But
then they came up against campaign finance laws.
Justices strike down
'millionaire's amendment'. The Supreme Court on Thursday [6/26/2008] struck down the "millionaire's
amendment," a campaign finance law intended to level the field for House candidates facing wealthy opponents
who spend lots of their own money. … The justices, in a 5-4 ruling that reflects skepticism of campaign
finance overhauls, said the law violates the First Amendment.
Obama and the
other SCOTUS decision. Although overshadowed by the Second Amendment ruling, yesterday the
SCOTUS also overturned part of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform. One beneficiary of this overturned
provision of the law was Barack Obama. Barack Obama capitalized on the so-called Millionaire's
Exception….
Our Glorious Experiment Is
Ended. With Barack Obama's announcement today [6/10/2008] that he will not take public financing
for his presidential bid — because "the system is broken," as he said risibly, since what he meant
was that he can raise lots more money than the $84 million he would receive from the government —
Obama has done this nation a service. He has exposed the madness behind the notion of restricting the
amount of money spent on political campaigns.
Revolutionary Sellout Redux:
We are the ones Barack Obama has been waiting for ... to fund his campaign. Such was the essence of the
video message Obama supporters woke up to find in their e-boxes yesterday morning, the freshman senator from
Illinois casually announcing he would forgo public funds (along with the accompanying spending cap) and urging
viewers also to "declare your independence" — by sending him money.
The Millionaire Ruse.
Jack Davis, a rich Democrat who twice tried and failed to unseat Congressman Tom Reynolds in upstate New York,
probably knows better than most that personal wealth can't buy you a seat in Congress. On Tuesday [4/22/2008],
the Supreme Court heard Mr. Davis's challenge to McCain-Feingold's so-called Millionaire Rule….
Hillary — The Movie. A
lucky few New York conservatives gathered by invitation in Times Square to view a private screening of the New
York premier of "Hillary — The Movie." It was a private showing because a three judge panel
in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., recently ruled that it is akin more to a campaign ad and thus
subject to campaign finance laws.
Anti-Clinton
film backers take on campaign-funding law. Television ads promoting movies are
not the normal business of politics or the courts, but they are this month because conservative
activists are seeking a wide audience for "Hillary: The Movie." David N.
Bossie, who made a name for himself as a relentless investigator of the Clintons during the
1990s, has released a 90-minute documentary on the New York senator.
A loophole as big as an armored truck... Secret Money Floods Campaigns.
A torrent of secret money is flooding into the leading presidential campaigns, with more than
$118 million, or one-quarter of the total raised in this cycle, banked without disclosure
of who gave the funds or where the donations originated.
McCain-Feingold's
Wealth of Hypocrisy. It was in 2002, when Congress was putting the final blemishes on the
McCain-Feingold law that regulates and rations political speech by controlling the financing of it. The
law's ostensible purpose is to combat corruption or the appearance thereof. But by restricting the
quantity and regulating the content and timing of political speech, the law serves incumbents, who are better
known than most challengers, more able to raise money and uniquely able to use aspects of their
offices — franked mail, legislative initiatives, C-SPAN, news conferences — for
self-promotion.
McCain vs. Madison:
McCain's progressivism may be seen mostly clearly in his primary legislative project: the McCain-Feingold
campaign finance law. The First Amendment to the Constitution is not progressive. It gives greater
weight to the right of the individual to speak, to write, and to associate than to any collective purpose the
government might have in suppressing speech. That right includes inevitably a right to spend money to
speak, to write, and to associate.
The McCain-Feingold
Newspaper Price Control Act. Most newspaper editorial pages … support
McCain-Feingold and other restrictions on campaign speech, which do not apply at least to
editorial content of newspapers. One wonders if any newspapers will change their
editorial line now that their publishers are facing the threat of government intervention
in their own business.
The
McCain-Feingold Effect: John McCain's campaign fell into disarray this week,
kicked off by the news it had raised a scant $24 million so far. Mark these money
woes down to any number of problems, but don't entirely discount the McCain-Feingold effect.
And Then There
Was One. This could be the first presidential campaign since Watergate to be financed entirely
with private funds. The two major-party nominees alone may raise and spend $1 billion combined.
Under these circumstances, the inadequacy of campaign finance disclosure rules becomes even more glaring.
Liberals eye new cash machine.
The liberal Internet money machine known as ActBlue has proposed a new fundraising twist designed to provide
huge cash infusions to Democratic-leaning political action committees and boost Democratic candidates.
ActBlue, already among the top PACs in politics today, has asked the Federal Election Commission for
permission to solicit money for groups such as the AFL-CIO and Human Rights Campaign, which are barred from
trolling for cash outside of their direct membership.
It's hard to imagine a two-year-old opening a checking account. As
Campaigns Chafe at Limits, Donors Might Be in Diapers. Elrick Williams's toddler niece Carlyn
may be one of the youngest contributors to this year's presidential campaign. The 2-year-old gave $2,300
to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). So did her sister and brother, Imara, 13, and Ishmael, 9, and her cousins
Chan and Alexis, both 13. Altogether, according to newly released campaign finance reports, the extended
family of Williams, a wealthy Chicago financier, handed over nearly a dozen checks in March for the maximum
allowed under federal law to Obama.
The Editor says...
Campaign finance laws can't prevent this kind of chicanery.
The McCain
Mutiny: For almost the entire duration of the Bush administration, Senator McCain has seemingly
gone out of his way to antagonize conservatives and Republicans. He teamed with one of the Senate's most
liberal members, Russ Feingold, to deliver a catastrophic piece of campaign finance reform. This move won
the plaudits of the media, but got only catcalls from conservatives. In more recent days, McCain has
attempted to outdo himself by teaming with longtime Republican bogeyman Ted Kennedy to craft an immigration bill.
High Court
To Revisit Campaign Finance Law. The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to revisit the landmark 2002
legislation overhauling the nation's campaign finance laws, moving to settle the role of campaign spending by
corporations, unions and special interest groups in time for the 2008 presidential primaries. It would
be the first time the court has reviewed the McCain-Feingold law of 2002 since justices ruled 5 to 4
three years ago that the act was constitutional.
Supreme Court Revisits Campaign
Finance Law. The Supreme Court put defenders of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law on the
defensive today [4/25/2007] in a spirited argument that suggested the court could soon open a significant
loophole in the measure.
Court must
step up in campaign finance case. Five years after the passage of the law known as
McCain-Feingold, even advocates of campaign finance reform should be uncomfortable with what they
have wrought. A case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear next week illustrates why.
McCain-Feingold in the
Dock. A federal court decision last week upheld the right of citizens to petition their
government — a right taken for granted before the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law codified
speech restrictions. The ruling is overly narrow but welcome all the same. And if it's
appealed, as expected, the Supreme Court will have another chance to weigh in on Congress's efforts
to chip away at First Amendment free-speech guarantees in the name of "reform."
McCain-Feingold
was a mistake. Something almost without precedent in America will happen
Thursday [9/7/2006]. That's the day when McCain-Feingold — aka the Bipartisan
Campaign Reform Act of 2002 — will officially silence broadcast advertising that
contains criticism of members of Congress seeking re-election in November. Before
2006, American election campaigns traditionally began in earnest after Labor Day. Unless
McCain-Feingold is repealed, Labor Day will henceforth mark the point in the campaign when
congressional incumbents can sit back and cruise, free of those pesky negative TV and
radio spots. It is the most effective incumbent protection act possible, short of
abolishing the elections themselves.
Campaign-Finance
Reform Has Been a Bust. The latest McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan "reform" recipe is missing a
crucial ingredient: the McCain. Feingold et al. have introduced a bill to "repair and
strengthen" the presidential public-financing system. But while Sen. John McCain supported a similar
proposal in 2003, he apparently wants no part of it now. The reason is pretty simple: The plan
is going to be wildly unpopular — with voters in general, and with conservative
Republican primary voters in particular.
High Court Rejects Vermont
Campaign Finance Law. The Supreme Court ruled Monday [6/26/2006] that Vermont's limits on
contributions and spending in political campaigns are too restrictive and improperly hinder the ability
of candidates to raise money and speak to voters.
Free
Speech Restored in Louisiana. After nearly two years of litigation, the Center for Individual
Freedom (CFIF) won an important free-speech decision last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit ruled that Louisiana's campaign finance law does not restrict or regulate independent political
issue advertising. The legal challenge was to Louisiana's Campaign Finance Disclosure Act.
The withering of political
speech: The United States Supreme Court under the stewardship of Chief Justice John G.
Roberts, Jr. will soon decide whether political speech will wither and die from the mad assaults of
campaign finance reformers.
The Supreme Court has given the green light to Campaign Finance Reform, to the surprise of a number of
people. The items below have been written since that decision.
Reform
that Doesn't Add Up: In politics, money is like water. If you tamp it
down in one place, it bubbles up somewhere else. So when McCain-Feingold banned
unlimited donations to political parties, that money popped up in organizations known
as 527s. … [The] 527s raised more than $400 million for the 2004 election
cycle. Almost three quarters of that money came from just 52 people. That
includes Democratic bigwigs Peter Lewis ($16 million) and George
Soros ($12 million).
Campaign finance reform
is more corrupt than the problem? A jaundiced view of government is often sensible, and certainly
it is justified by campaign regulation, which has become a particularly virulent form of the disease it
purports to cure.
The incumbent
protection act: When our behemoth government has the power to spend more than
$2 trillion every year, big money will find a way to try to influence it. It's the
little guys, who aren't in office, who are silenced by "reform."
George Soros and the
Press: Soros has always exercised influence over so-called campaign
finance reform groups. Those groups were behind the McCain-Feingold bill to
reform campaign spending that also put limits on the ability of independent groups
to influence political races. The law included a loophole that allowed Soros
to spend more than $20 million to defeat Bush.
Free speech on life
support. In 2002, McCain-Feingold banned large "soft money" contributions for parties —
money for issue-advocacy and organizational activities, not for candidates. In 2004, to the surprise of no sensible person and most McCain-Feingold supporters, much of the money -- especially
huge contributions from rich liberals — was diverted to 527s. So on April 5, House
Republicans, easily shedding what little remains of their ballast of belief in freedom and limited government,
voted to severely limit the amounts that can be given to 527s.
The
vast left-wing conspiracy: The well-organized political movement that the
Democrats created to outfox tough new campaign finance laws and bring them back to national
power is going to give Republicans fits in future elections.
Money
mad: The main principle served by McCain's crusade for campaign finance "reform" has been
the principle of incumbent protection, the same goal that motivates hack politicians
who kowtow to special interests.
Less speech, and
no more car ads. In 1965 Russ Darrow founded the business — Russ
Darrow Group Inc. — that now includes 22 new and used vehicle
dealerships. Because of [the McCain-Feingold legislation], the company felt
compelled to ask the Federal Election Commission whether it can continue to
advertise when its founder is running for federal office.
527 Organizations: Unintended
Consequences of Campaign "Reform". The 2004 Presidential election cycle has
been unlike any other in recent memory. Several factors contribute to this
situation. Admittedly, leftists recognize the "all or nothing" possibilities
for their worn out '60's agenda, with George W. Bush perceived as the greatest
impediment to their utopian delusions. Furthermore, they remain enraged
that they were unable to dimple sufficient numbers of chads in Florida to secure
their theft of the 2000 presidential race.
Be careful what you ask
for. You wanted campaign finance reform. You got campaign finance reform. McCain-Feingold
promised to take the money out of politics. If you believed that, you deserve what you got.
GOP Accuses Kerry of Illegally
Using Soft Money: The Bush campaign and Republican National Committee said they would file a
complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing Kerry and pro-Kerry groups of violating a campaign law
that broadly bans the use of "soft money" — corporate, union and unlimited individual
donations — to influence federal elections.
Campaign-Finance Reform Attacks Victims of Government
Corruption: If stopping the selling of favors in Washington is the goal, why does no one demand
that we simply enforce the laws that make such action illegal? After all, we combat police corruption by
prosecuting officers who take kickbacks to overlook crimes. We combat judicial corruption by prosecuting
judges who accept bribes in exchange for making unjust rulings. Why not similarly go after Congressmen
who trade legislative decisions for campaign contributions?
Amending an Amendment:
Nothing in the constitution would lead a reasonable person to divine that a law would be OK as long as it has only
a "marginal impact" on political speech. And, unquestionably, a law that allows Congress to "regulate electioneering
communications" would violate the First Amendment. Yet five justices saw fit to let that unconstitutional law stand.
Courts without law: If
you think the issue in the recent Supreme Court decision upholding campaign finance legislation is whether campaign
finance reform is a good idea or a bad idea, then you have already surrendered the far more important and more fundamental
idea of Constitutional government.
Supreme Court
Upholds Political Money Law. A sharply divided Supreme Court upheld key features of the nation's
new law intended to lessen the influence of money in politics, ruling Wednesday [12/10/2003] that the government
may ban unlimited donations to political parties.
TV News, Rich People Now Control
Political Speech, Analysts Say. Broadcast news organizations with a liberal bias and billionaires
with potentially hidden political agendas will now control much of the flow of information about federal candidates
in the days leading up to elections, according to critics of a Supreme Court decision issued Wednesday [12/10/2003].
The Right to Shut Up and Pay Your
Taxes: Let a thousand voices boom across the airwaves, the Internet and in newspaper columns condemning
the assault that Congress and the Supreme Court have inflicted on the First Amendment -- on our most essential,
fundamental speech: the ability to criticize our elected officials.
The Right to Remain Silent: So
far, the McCain-Feingold anti-speech police haven't busted down the studio door. I'm not yet in handcuffs, under
arrest, or in jail. Oh, that's right — I'm merely not permitted to mention the name of a
congressman if I do it too close to an election. Whew! That was close.
Our Republic on the Ropes:
I join the chorus of voices condemning the assault that Congress and the Supreme Court have inflicted on the
First Amendment — on our most essential, fundamental speech: the ability to criticize our elected officials.
Synopsis of CFR from
Falwell.com: The
McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill is dangerous legislation
that is a stake through the heart of the First Amendment right of freedom
of speech. In a special report last year on Sen. McCain's proposal,
World Magazine said,
"On campaign-finance reform, Mr. McCain would essentially
suspend the First Amendment for 60 days prior to any federal election. He
would make it illegal for nonprofit groups — from
the National Rifle Association to the
National Right-to-Life Committee — to
advertise against a candidate, publish 'report cards' on votes, or even mention a candidate's
name in a way that might 'materially benefit' his opponent."
Government
Censorship of Political Free Speech: "Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of
speech…". These sacred words vouched safe to us by the blood of our forefathers, emblazoned in the
First Amendment of the Constitution and applied to all citizens in the Fourteenth Amendment are under insidious
attack. Under the guise of "campaign finance reform" our precious right of free speech has been
seriously eroded.
McCain — Do As I Say, Not
As I Do: The new "campaign reform" bill, 38 pages long, contains multiple provisions to
restrict the ability of advocacy groups to communicate with the public about the actions of public officials
and to communicate with elected officials regarding pending legislation. These include pre-election
restrictions on broadcast "issue ads," and other restrictions that apply year-round to both print and
broadcast communications.
ACLU Joins Broad Coalition in
Constitutional Challenge to Campaign Finance Law: The American Civil Liberties Union announced
that it is joining with Senator Mitch McConnell and others in a constitutional challenge to the recently
adopted campaign finance law. The decision to join the lawsuit reflects the ACLU's longstanding view
that campaign finance reform cannot be achieved by censoring speech.
The Terrible Secret of Campaign Finance Reform:
Americans have a right to speak out on politics. McCain clearly hopes his campaign finance bill would
prevent the NAACP from speaking out during elections. That aspiration alone should be enough to doom
McCain's shocking assault on the liberties of the American people.
Campaign
Finance, Corruption, and Oath of Office: It takes a tremendous amount of
money today to mount a campaign for public office, especially at the federal level, and
especially for challengers. Challengers have to overcome the manifest advantages of
incumbency — name recognition, the power of office, the franking privilege, a
knowledgeable staff, campaign experience, and, perhaps most important, easy access
to the media, to name but a few.
Campaign Finance Reform — John
McCain vs. Free Speech: As you follow developments in the Senate debate on campaign finance reform, ask
yourself if the various bills, amendments and counter-proposals truly benefit voters, or if incumbent politicians
stand to reap benefits (including reelection) from the legislation.
"Campaign Finance Reform" Regulates Free Speech.
Do we really want to allow bureaucrats and politicians to be able to harass citizens for expressing political
opinions? Or create such a snarl of red tape about contributing money to candidates or causes as to make
people reluctant to participate in political activity, for fear of being dragged into federal court over a
form that wasn't filled out right?
McCain-Feingold
Bill Contains Multiple Provisions That Violate First Amendment Rights of Average
Citizens: The latest version of the McCain-Feingold bill "is a broad-based
and pernicious attack on the rights of average citizens to participate in the democratic
process, thereby enhancing the power of already powerful wealthy individuals, millionaire
candidates, and large news corporations," according to a detailed analysis of the bill
released by the James Madison Center for Free Speech.
Campaign Finance "Reform" Looms as Threat to Free
Speech: NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, in an interview with Fox News's Neil Cavuto,
said that if H.R. 2356 should pass, "I'm afraid we're going to lose the First Amendment. The First
Amendment protects press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of
petition. And what they are doing here in this so-called campaign finance bill cuts to the heart
of the First Amendment."
Campaign Finance "Reform" Proposals: A First Amendment
Analysis: [Written in 1997 but still quote relevant.] In the wake of recent reports of
questionable campaign finance practices have come ever more draconian proposals to "reform" the campaign
finance system. Those proposals pose a disturbing threat to the individual political freedom guaranteed
by the Constitution. Under current precedents, none of them could survive a First Amendment challenge.
Campaign Finance "Reform" could End Free Speech:
Poll after poll shows that campaign finance reform consistently ranks far down the list of issues that the
general public considers important. Yet the liberal media and the political left regard it as the mother
of all issues. Why? Because campaign finance restrictions could have a muzzling effect on everyone
but the media, which is predominantly on their side, of course. In other words, they correctly see it as a
golden opportunity to silence much of their political opposition.
Campaign Finance reform: A
primary provision in the bill is that it prohibits people and groups from running political ads in newspapers and
broadcast media that refer to a particular candidate within 60 days of a general election and 30 days
of a primary election. As such, it is a clear violation of the Constitution's First Amendment.
How Campaign "Reform" Limits Free
Speech: The case of an Ohio woman charged with violating the state code for anonymously passing
out leaflets against a school tax levy is being argued as an example of how campaign finance laws violate
free speech.
Buchanan, Nader Decry Campaign
Finance Bill : Former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader and former Reform Party
presidential candidate Pat Buchanan say the Shays-Meehan campaign finance legislation would infringe on free
speech without ending corruption.
Silencing the People,
Empowering the Government: In the wee hours of Valentine's Day morning, the U.S. House of
Representatives struck a blow against the freedom of Americans to criticize their government, and passed the
Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill. Only 189 members of the House had the courage and honor to
defend the Constitution and vote against Shays-Meehan. They deserve our thanks. But unless the
current efforts at "reform" can be derailed, we will soon find ourselves with less political freedom than ever
before in American history.
Supreme Court Will Reject Campaign
"Reform": The Supreme Court will decide that certain provisions of the act are
unconstitutional. The vote will be at least 7-2, perhaps 9-0.
Power Transferred Under Campaign
Finance Reform: If Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has his way, President George W. Bush will
soon be signing the nation's brand new McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill. Bush
has given strong indications that he will sign it.
Conservatives
Organize to Defeat "Unconstitutional" Campaign Finance Bill: A coalition of more than 50
conservative leaders and groups, led by the American Conservative Union, has united to defeat the Shays-Meehan bill,
which is aimed at changing U.S. campaign finance law and is set to be considered in the Senate the first week of March.
Why is "Campaign Finance Reform"
Popular — Amongst Politicians? This is not something that the public is demanding.
What campaign finance reform restricts are public expressions of alternative sources of information and
viewpoints besides those which dominate the media. Naturally, the media would love to have a monopoly,
since none of these laws restricts what the media can say or when they can say it.
NRA Blasts John McCain:
Wayne LaPierre said McCain's new law would effectively shut the NRA out of the political system by not
allowing independent groups from buying TV or radio ads 60 days before a general election.
Campaign Finance Reform: Wrong Target
Before becoming bamboozled by McCain's message, we might stop to ask: Are political contributions really
the problem?
The McCain-Feingold Indian
Giving Loophole: Final tallies are not in yet, but analysts say the top individual recipient of
Indian gaming money during election 2000 was none other than anti-soft money crusader
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who sits on the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs. So why
aren't Indian tribes raising hell over McCain's soft-money ban?
Campaign Finance Reform and Other
"Feel Good" Laws: Why is so much fuss being made about the McCain-Feingold bill? Because it
has become a popular cause and it makes people feel good — regardless of what consequences it may or
may not have.
Much Ado, but Nothing Doing: Even reformers know
that campaign finance fixes won't work for very long. So why won't they stop trying?
"Campaign Finance Reform"
Follies: According to House minority leader Richard Gephardt: "What we have is two
important values in direct conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy
democracy." Whatever Congressman Gephardt's definition of a "healthy" campaign, it is not part of the
Constitution of the United States — and free speech is.
Campaign Reform Is Unconstitutional, No Matter
What McCain May Claim. No recent political subject has generated more heat and less light than
that of campaign financing. John McCain seems determined to make it the hallmark of his political
career, doggedly pursuing in the Senate what he failed to accomplish in last year's presidential primary.
But in doing so the Arizona Senator has placed himself at odds with the Constitution. The only public
official who has consistently brought intelligence to bear upon the question is Sen. Mitch McConnell,
R. Ky., who has said, repeatedly and truly, that all the efforts to outlaw "soft money" violate the
Constitution.
Campaign
Finance Reform is All But Dead In The House. Nineteen
Republicans joined 209 Democrats to block campaign finance reform legislation
from coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives. By a vote of 228-203,
supporters of campaign finance reform rejected the ground rules covering the actual
debate on the bill. They accused Republican leaders of being "unfair," by proposing
rules that would probably end up dooming the legislation.
House Ready to Fight Over Campaign
Finance. Opponents view the bill as an unconstitutional attack on freedom of speech that would
increase power of incumbents and the media.
Prof. Smith Goes to Washington: Federal
Election Commission member Bradley A. Smith takes on campaign finance laws in his
book, Unfree Speech: The
Folly of Campaign Finance Reform: At a time when campaign finance reform is widely viewed as
synonymous with cleaning up Washington and promoting political equality, Bradley Smith, one of the nation's
foremost campaign finance experts and, since June 2000, a member of the Federal Election Commission, argues
that all restrictions on campaign giving should be eliminated. Smith finds that campaign contributions have
little corrupting effect on the legislature, that they violate the rights of free speech, that they diminish
citizens' power, and he argues that repealing all laws that regulate political spending and contributions
would actually enhance political equality.
"Previous threats to free speech — the Alien and Sedition Acts,
the 'red scare' of the 1920s, the abuses of the McCarthy era, recent
campus 'speech codes' — were as transitory as the passions that produced them. But
a government apparatus for regulating the permissible kinds and rationing the
permissible amounts of political speech will be permanent. Which is why 'campaign
finance reform,' advancing under the banner of political hygiene, threatens to do
unprecedented injury to America as an open society. Bradley Smith, with credentials
as a scholar and a public official, explains the danger in this powerful book."
Perry: McCain-Feingold Is a
Hoax: It is nothing more than a back-door attempt to amend the First Amendment to the
Constitution out of the Bill of Rights. It's that serious.
McConnell to Lead Court Fight on
McCain Finance Bill: Sen. Mitch McConnell hopes the House of Representatives does its duty,
but he's prepared to battle the McCain-Feingold bill straight to the Supreme Court.
McCain "Reform" Spawns Unusual
Opposition: Despite liberal-media efforts to paint campaign finance "reform" as politically
correct, a broad range of opposition is developing among unlikely political bedfellows.
Senate Colleagues Tell McCain:
Enough Already!Republican senators are seething at being forced to spend two weeks on Sen. John
McCain's campaign finance bill while the new Republican president is forced to wait in line for Senate attention
to his agenda.
McCain-Feingold Could End America
As We Know It. McCain-Feingold, if passed by the House and signed into law by the president, is
the end of the world of politics and government as the Founding Fathers envisioned it.
McCain's
Failed Reform: It is hard to find anybody [other than John McCain] who seriously believes tax
lobbyists will be less effective or pork-dispensers like Ted Stevens and Robert Byrd [will be] forestalled
because of McCain-Feingold.
The Fallacy of Absolute Electoral
Equality: Part Two of a three-part series on campaign finance reform, John McCain's favorite
topic. In fact, it seems to be the only topic on which he speaks.
Sidebar discussion: The government's war on bloggers.
Apparently the FCC is attempting to strangle free speech on the internet using Campaign
Finance Reform as leverage. This is very clearly an unwarranted and unmitigated
attack on free speech and individual liberty.
New: The
coming crackdown on blogging. In just a few months, [FCC Commissioner Bradley Smith] warns, bloggers and news
organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a
campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing
list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.
Editorial Comment: FINES?? If
I don't pay the fine, will the FCC suspend my Blogging License? Let's
clear this up right away — anything I say on this web site is an exercise of free
speech, which is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. To prohibit the free
exchange of information and (political) opinion over the internet, or on the
telephone, or in a newspaper, is a clear violation of the First Amendment.
This isn't a blog, anyway. Your comments are welcome, but they won't be posted.
Free speech
under siege: The case of Kirby Wilbur. The government, increasingly, is
controlling elections in ever greater detail, and with the plainest purpose to affect who
wins and loses. One of the arguments in favor of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance
law was that unfair attacks were being made on candidates. Of course, it is in the
interest of our elected officials to make it illegal to criticize them.
Much more information is available from The
FEC vs. Blogs by Michelle Malkin.
The plan to silence
Internet journalists: The McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 empowers federal judges and
Federal Election Commissioners to determine who is allowed to say what about political candidates
in all electronic media. On Sept. 18, 2004, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
ordered the FEC to extend its enforcement of McCain-Feingold to the Internet. In the face of
a massive outcry from bloggers, the FEC backed down from fully implementing Judge Kollar-Kotelly's
order. However, the order stands. Sooner or later, it will be enforced. Proposals
are already on the table to require bloggers to register with the government and to report to the
FEC any election-related blogging they undertake as "political contributions" subject to
campaign finance law.
End
election-law nonsense. We're riding a camel here of destructive
impingements on the First Amendment. … I say, pile on the incursions, pile on the
devaluing of our rights. Pile it all on until finally, hopefully, we can
break this camel's back.
Campaign-Finance Law
Goes Too Far in Limiting Ads, Court Says. A U.S. court ruled that the 2002 federal campaign-finance
law went too far in barring corporations, labor unions and other interest groups from directly funding broadcast
ads that mention federal candidates. A divided three-judge panel, ruling in a challenge by Wisconsin Right
to Life Inc., said the organizations have a free-speech right to directly fund ads that name a candidate, as
long as they don't endorse or oppose the candidate.
Quiet, Congress at
work. Some will argue this analysis is itself too negative. After all,
the legislation recently moving in the Senate bans any regulation of blogs by the Federal
Election Commission. "Hooray!" you say? But this "ban" will last only as long
as incumbents in Congress feel like permitting such speech. That's not the right to
freedom of speech, but the offering of a privilege. It's as temporary as a
press-on tattoo, and can as easily be smudged out by those in power. Congress has banned
itself from regulating bloggers, but Congress clearly asserts it has the power to
regulate bloggers. It's a question of timing, not principle.
Why
the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End. The World Wide Web is the most
democratic mass medium there has ever been. Freedom of the press, as the saying goes, belongs only to
those who own one. Radio and television are controlled by those rich enough to buy a broadcast
license. But anyone with an Internet-connected computer can reach out to a potential audience
of billions.
Permission
to speak freely. As of Friday [9/8/2006], when the 60-day blackout period for "electioneering
communications" by nonprofit interest groups begins, political speech will enjoy less protection than dirty
movies. While a sexually explicit film is protected by the First Amendment if it has some socially
redeeming value, an "electioneering communication" is forbidden even if it deals with important and timely
public policy issues.
John McCain elsewhere in the news:
Note: The newest information is at the bottom of this subsection.
Global Warming
Holiday: Most of the price of gasoline is determined by the global price of crude oil, which is spiking now
due to a combination of the weak dollar and commodity speculation. The source of the problem isn't the tax. Domestic
demand for gas always goes up with summer driving, but the McCain holiday doesn't affect production, and anyway, only
applies over the short term. More notably, it makes a hash out of the climate-change policies that the candidate
purports to favor.
Will McCain
Run For President In 2004 As a Democrat? During a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday
[4/17/2002], House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt sounded as if he was about to introduce the Democrats'
2004 presidential nominee. "I'm pleased to be here with John McCain," Gephardt said.
McCain, Democrats Reap Cash From
Global Crossing: The mostly Democrat cash cow involving bankrupt Global Crossing has also netted
cash for the anti-Bush Republican who has built a "reform" crusade that leaves the impression he thinks nearly
everyone except himself is unethical. The Washington Times on Monday [2/11/2002] printed an outline of
how the telecommunications giant dispensed its campaign largesse. Of the five top Senate recipients, the
No. 1 beneficiary was none other than the Democrat-like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Mr. Campaign Finance "Reform"
himself, who appears not to care that his campaign proposals would stifle free speech and empower pro-Democrat
unions and media at the expense of Republicans.
"Democrat"
John McCain: In case you missed the recent edition of the New Yorker, you may have missed
Nicholas Lemann's puff piece cover story, "McCain vs. Bush." The profile of the
new, post-9/11 John McCain demonstrates once again that any Republican who bashes fellow
Republicans will most certainly get good press from the New York establishment.
McCain
Faces Trouble Back Home: Arizona Sen. John McCain has so riled some of his constituents
that they have mounted an effort to get him voted out of office early. The three-term Republican
is not up for reelection until 2004, but the newly minted "Recall
John McCain Committee" doesn't want to wait that long.
McCain Burns Bridges — Backlash
Building: Political analysts are engaged in a wild melee trying to predict the twists and turns of
Senator John McCain's political gyrations. Some say he will switch parties, some predict another run for
the presidency. Regardless of the final outcome, certain lessons can already be learned about what
happens when a politician turns against his political base.
Web site: The Recall John McCain Committee was formed
on June 5, 2001 for the purpose of recalling Arizona's United States Senator, John McCain.
Web site: The James Madison Center for Free
Speech: The James Madison Center for Free Speech was founded to protect the First Amendment right
of all citizens to free political expression in our democratic Republic. Its purpose is to support
litigation and public education activities to that end.
McCain and Kennedy: This Is
Media Balance?Conservatives and media watchdog groups are aghast at a longstanding radio debate
program that has Sen. John McCain "pitted against" Sen. Ted Kennedy — "a discussion between the Democrats'
favorite Democrat and the Democrats' favorite Republican."
A Conservative
Case against McCain: With the voters of Michigan specifically in mind, [Rick] Santorum called
[John] McCain "absolutely lethal" to the auto industry. "On the environment [McCain] has sided with the
radicals in the Congress." Santorum reminded Levin's listeners that John McCain was against drilling for
oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which would have provided an important step toward energy
independence.
The Gore-publicans. During recent
primary campaigning, John McCain came out of the global warming closet, so to speak, into which it seemed he
had gone to hide his passion for the Left's new signature issue. … First we restrict speech, then we
ration energy. It just makes sense.
McCain
under glass: Here is a suggestion for all those reporters who believe the debate on
this topic is over. Ask cost-benefit questions and carefully check out the answers. If
the past is a guide, the discovery will be that no politically feasible plan will make a dime's
worth of difference, though costing much more than a dime, and that it would be economically
ruinous to launch programs that would immediately and significantly cut greenhouse gases in
amounts alarmists think are necessary to avert dangerous warming.
The
Real McCain Record. There's a reason some of John McCain's conservative supporters
avoid discussing his record. They want to talk about his personal story, his position on the
surge, his supposed electability. But whenever the rest of his career comes up, the knee-jerk
reply is to characterize the inquiries as attacks. The McCain domestic record is a disaster.
There's Something
About McCain. John McCain's strident opposition to drilling in ANWR provides a belated
opportunity for clarity. Republicans would be better off viewing McCain as a Scoop Jackson Democrat
living under the Republican "big tent." They should consider any typical Republican positions he takes
aside from his unstinting correctness on national security issues a bonus.
The martyrdom of John McCain:
The national media thinks John McCain is under siege again, and his campaign is only too happy to help reporters
file their stories. … McCain's lagging rivals don't mention his name in stump speeches, they don't
criticize him and they aren't even airing negative ads against him. You'd hardly know that from the
McCain campaign, though. They recognize that there is sympathy to be gained by playing the victim and
they're milking it for all it's worth.
Old Warrior,
Go Home. Sure, Mac-bashers admit, hes good on Iraq and the war on terrorism, but look at his
apostasies. McCain co-authored a campaign-finance reform bill that enraged far-right (and far-left)
advocacy groups. He co-authored global-warming legislation with then-Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman.
McCain infuriated the GOP base last year when he championed an immigration bill that would have set up a path
to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The bill tanked, and deservedly so, but not before McCain
gratuitously insulted bill critics.
McCain
doesn't pass the 'Dicky Flatt test'. Phil Gramm is fully behind John McCain's
presidential bid. Not so the former Texas senator's longtime political muse, Dicky Flatt.
"I want a good conservative," Mr. Flatt said by phone from the print shop he owns in Mexia,
Texas. "I'm not necessarily a McCain person. He's not a real Republican. Not in
my view."
The Editor says...
For those of you who have never heard a Phil Gramm campaign speech, Dicky Flatt was the central figure in
almost every speech — an average guy who opposed intrusive government, runaway spending, and
leftist nonsense. Senator Gramm used to say that he tried to keep people like Dicky Flatt in mind
when voting on legislation.
John McCain: The Geraldo Rivera
Republican. Like the ethnocentric cable TV host who can't string a sentence about immigration
together without drowning in demagoguery, McCain naturally resorts to open-borders platitudes when pressed
for enforcement specifics. Instead of emphasizing the need for local and state cooperation with federal
immigration authorities to prevent the release of illegal alien criminals or discussing 100% preventable crimes
by illegal alien thugs who should never have been on American soil in the first place, McCain harps on
open-borders sob stories.
John
McCain, Multiculturalist. We all know John McCain is terrible on immigration. For years
he held America's sovereignty and security hostage to amnesty and increased immigration, and his newfound
support for "enforcement first" is so insubstantial and transparently insincere that it insults our
intelligence. He's so bad that Americans for Better Immigration ranks his performance in office as the
worst of all the presidential candidates — including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And as Robert
Rector of the Heritage Foundation has pointed out, passage of McCain's bill "would represent the largest
expansion of the welfare state in 30 years."
U.N. Double Talk From
Straight Talker McCain. On one of the big issues — the role of the United
Nations in world affairs — this so-called "Straight Talker" has been guilty of double
talk. McCain has taken contradictory positions on Senate ratification of the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Treaty.
Why McCain Needs
to Be Stopped: McCain is a suicidal choice for Republicans, because on every issue other
than the war, he stands for capitulation to the left. There are three big domestic issues that
will be decided by the 2008 election: socialized medicine, higher taxes, and global warming
regulations. The Democrats are in favor of all three — and John McCain won't stop
them.
"Maverick"
and "Conservative" Aren't Synonyms. McCain is not only not conservative enough; he has also has
built a reputation as a maverick by stabbing his party in the back — not in furtherance of conservative
principles but by betraying them. McCain delights in sticking it to his colleagues while winning
accolades from the mainstream liberal media.
McCain's ACU Ratings.
Senator John McCain's lifetime rating of 82.3% from the American Conservative Union is often cited as proof that
he is conservative. Here is a closer look at that 82.3 rating. First, a rating of 82.3 is not really
that high. … What this means is that McCain's ACU ratings since 1998 put him on the liberal side among
Republicans. The few Republicans consistently more liberal than McCain would be Chafee (formerly R-RI),
Collins (R-ME), Snowe (R-ME) and Specter (R-PA).
John
McCain Lacks Integrity. The man of integrity and self-proclaimed fighter for the "little guy" was
up to his ears in the infamous "Keating Five" bank scandal, which cost countless American bank depositors
incalculable amounts of money and some of them their life savings. The man of integrity, a Republican and
alleged conservative, partnered with leftwing Democrat Senator Russ Feingold to sponsor and enact a federal
statute that has throttled considerable free political speech in American election campaign….
GOP Acquires A Taste For Hillary
Lite. We are concerned — and we think the GOP base should be too — about
the ringing endorsement given to McCain by the New York Times. It praised him for "a record of working
across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation." What the Times had in mind is legislation
such as the assault on the First Amendment known as McCain-Feingold.
McCain's No
Threat to the Left. While the liberal establishment may be conflicted over whether it wants
Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee, there's no doubt which Republican
it favors. John McCain is the liberal elite's go-to guy in the GOP. They believe he'll be there
for them when they need him. That was the essential message of last week's New York Times editorial
endorsing McCain for the Republican nomination.
Talk radio
impugns McCain's liberal record. Conservative talk radio is ganging up on presidential candidate
John McCain, attacking him for joining Democrats to push liberal legislation and opposing bedrock Republican
positions from tax cuts to immigration.
Will the press get over its love
for McCain? Where was the straight talker when Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times asked whether
he would vote for his own McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill if it came to the Senate floor
tomorrow? ... McCain used the same evasive tactic when Hook asked him about the Bush tax cuts,
which he opposed on principle in 2001 and which he currently seems to support retroactively.
Who Is Influencing John McCain?
If John McCain wants to reassure conservatives about his candidacy, he should issue a statement saying he will
have nothing to do with [Talbott] if or when he becomes president. To his credit, McCain voted against
Talbott when he was up for high-level positions in the Clinton State Department and called his views on the old
Soviet Union naïve and foolish. But Talbott has apparently forgotten about all of this and now
wants and expects to have major influence on a McCain presidency.
What "Other Wars"? When
Senator John McCain was campaigning in the Sunshine State, he repeated several times the main reason
Floridians should vote for him. "There's going to be other wars," he warned, and he was the man for this
dangerous moment. One would assume a statement like that would pique the interest of most citizens.
This, evidently, was not the case among his opponents, newsmen, or anyone involved in the GOP primary.
McCain,
the Anti-Conservative. It's true that McCain is unpopular with Reagan conservatives because he
decidedly is not, on far too many issues, a Reagan conservative. But it's more than that. He is
the anti-conservative. He instinctively sides against conservatives and relishes poking them in the
eye. He enjoys cavorting and colluding with our political enemies and basks in the fawning attention
they give him. Adding insult to injury, he now pretends to be the very thing he is not: an
across-the-board Reagan conservative. This fraudulent pretense inspires fundamental distrust
among Reagan conservatives.
John McCain is an Outright Liar!
It is no less than Clintonesque to listen to John "amnesty" McCain call himself "the official new leader of
the conservative movement in America." McCain is not being nominated by conservatives. He is
being nominated by liberal Independents in open primaries and liberal RINOs in closed primaries. He
has very little support among conservatives and he can't win in November as a result. But more
importantly, on the issues facing our nation today, John McCain is no more conservative or Republican
than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
John McCain
Hates Me. The feeling is mutual between McCain and me. I don't like the way he treats
people. You get the impression that he thinks everybody is beneath him. ... He has contempt for
conservatives who he thinks can be duped into thinking he's one of them, despite such blatantly
anti-conservative actions as his support for amnesty for illegal immigrants, his opposition to
the Bush tax cuts which got the economy rolling again, and his campaign finance bill which
skewed the political process and attacked free speech.
Democrats
say McCain nearly abandoned GOP. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican
Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an
Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.
McCain's Crooked
Talk. The fact that McCain makes short, blunt statements does not make him a straight-talker. ...
When confronted with any of his misdeeds, Senator McCain tends to fall back on his record as a war hero in
Vietnam. Let's talk sense. Benedict Arnold was a war hero but that did not exempt him from
condemnation for his later betrayal. Being a war hero is not a lifetime get-out-of-jail-free card.
And becoming president of the United States is not a matter of rewarding an individual for past services.
The Editor says...
Somebody run back to 1996 and tell that to Bob Dole.
John
McCain: A Poster Boy for Democrats and Viagra. He has betrayed his party time and
again: McCain-Kennedy for amnesty of illegal immigrants (enough said); McCain-Feingold for campaign
finance reform (suppressing free speech); McCain-Lieberman for energy tax (global warming); and
McCain-Edwards for a Patient's Bill of Rights (socialist medicine).
McCain
Won Because Romney's Boring. Sen. John McCain is no conservative. He opposed the Bush tax
cuts. He sponsored the greatest lasting crackdown on political speech in American history with campaign
finance reform. He allies himself with radical environmentalists. He's an open-borders advocate on
immigration. He voted against the constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage. He
cobbled together the Senate's Gang of 14, which stifled the appointment of strict constructionists to the
federal bench. His pro-life rhetoric is lukewarm at best. And he's almost certainly going
to win the Republican nomination.
Republican
Party Can't Afford More Liberal Leaders. I suppose I could be accused of over-dramatizing, but I
truly worry about the direction this nation is headed when contemplating a presidential race where the choices
are liberal and liberal-light. If John McCain is the GOP nominee, that's what we'll be faced with,
despite the Herculean efforts of some to spin it otherwise.
The Madness of John McCain: A
militarist suffering from acute narcissism and armed with the Bush Doctrine is not fit to be commander in
chief. … If McCain finally makes it to the White House, the U.S. will surely start new wars, and not just
in the Middle East.
The Great Betrayal: We are
forewarned. John McCain intends to be a war president. … Year 2008 may prove a defining one for
conservatives. For on many of the great issues, McCain has sided as often with the Left and the
Big Media as he has with the Right. Where Bush has been at his best, cutting taxes and nominating
conservative judges, McCain has been his nemesis.
The conservative jury is still out on backing McCain.
The cause of conservative discontent isn't hard to fathom. Start with the Arizona senator's voting record on many key
issues. He has opposed pro-growth tax cuts and supported limits on political speech. He has pushed amnesty when
it came to illegal immigration and half-measures when it came to interrogating terrorists. He wants to close
Guantanamo and allow the reimportation of prescription drugs into the United States. Not only does he part company
with conservatives on these and other issues — climate change, drilling for oil in the Alaskan hinterland,
federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, international criminal courts, gun-show background checks — he
invariably adopts the rhetoric of the left and stridently leads the opposition.
The Problem with John McCain. Sen.
McCain's personality may be his biggest problem. He is too quick to play bipartisan polka with liberals
like Sen. Ted Kennedy when he should be holding the line for common sense conservatism. Instead of
slapping the backs of those who nod with approval as illegal aliens flood over our borders, Sen. McCain should
have been building walls to keep the intruders out. Immigration is the foremost reason why
conservatives part company with John McCain.
Once
John Wins, He'll Make a Left. If history is any guide, the McCain we've seen of late on the campaign
trail is the most conservative McCain we'll ever see. He has taken a commanding lead in the GOP primary by
packaging himself as the "true conservative" committed to limited government, to slashed federal spending and
to an avowedly conservative Supreme Court. He claims the mantle of Ronald Reagan. He even claims
the mantle of Barry Goldwater, conservatism's crack version of Reagan. But as McCain clinches the GOP
nomination, he will begin his usual leftward lurch.
McCain gets all the media love.
It's been a running joke that journalists compose Sen. John McCain's real base, and a media exposure report
released Tuesday helps confirm it. In a pivotal week leading up to Super Tuesday, McCain received
significantly more media coverage than his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee "almost invisible," according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
'Republicans
for Choice' Endorses McCain. The Republicans for Choice Political Action Committee has endorsed
John McCain (R-Ariz.), saying he is the best candidate now that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is
out of the presidential race.
Critics of McCain's
critics should chill. I emphatically reject that only 3.6 percent of
Republicans have great difficulty swallowing McCain — ideologically and personally.
McCain isn't winning a majority of Republicans, much less conservative ones, and is relying
heavily on Democrat crossovers and independents, not to mention a little help from his
friends Mike Huckabee and the mainstream media.
GOP
Rearrangement Syndrome: I will support McCain if he's the nominee. So please quit putting
words in my mouth. I won't, however, stop trying to make him accountable to the base and to pull him to the
right. But it doesn't appear McCain's henchmen will be satisfied with the mere support of the base.
There's a Democrat Behind Door No. 1, 2
and 3. We keep hearing about McCain's "lifetime" rating from the American Conservative
Union being 82.3 percent. But … his more current ratings are not so hot. In
2006 — the most recent year for which ratings are available — McCain's ACU
rating was 65. That year, the ACU rating for the other senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl,
was 97. Even Chuck Hagel's ACU rating was 75, and Lindsey Graham's was 83.
Contain McCain! Don't nominate every Democrat's favorite
Republican!. The media and political establishment want you to think John McCain's nomination
is inevitable! They think you're stupid — and that if they tell you what to do, you'll simply do
as you're told … And they would like nothing better than to nominate the Democrats' favorite RINO!
For John McCain, there's no such thing as
illegal immigration. Time for a little straight talk, as the candidate himself might say.
No national Republican leader has a longer or more consistent record of advocating legal status for nearly
all of the country's 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants — not even George W. Bush.
McCain's nomination would push the politics of immigration to the left and potentially unravel the
conservative consensus in favor of attrition through enforcement.
How the Clintons will undo
McCain. The number of fellow senators who think John McCain is psychologically unstable
is large. Some will admit it publicly, like Thad Cochran who says, "The thought of his being president
sends a cold chill down my spine." Others relate times when McCain screamed four-letter obscenities
right in their faces in the Senate cloak room, like Dick Shelby, Rick Santorum or Jim Inhofe. "The
man is unhinged," one senator told me. "He is frighteningly unfit to be commander-in-chief."
The Great Betrayal: Ike
promised to "go to Korea" and ended that war. Nixon pledged to end Vietnam with honor. McCain
says we may be in Iraq a hundred years and warns, "there's going to be other wars." Take the man at
his word. … We are forewarned. John McCain intends to be a war president.
An
Open Letter to Sen. John McCain. You actually felt a need to formally apologize for a speaker to
refer to Obama by his full name? I spoke to Bill Cunningham right after this entire episode. As
you might have heard, he is now positively furious with you. I believe his exact words were, "There is
now no way I will vote for Juan Pablo McCain after he threw me under the wheels of the Straight Talk Express
Bus." And all of this just as you were gaining some ground with a bunch of worried conservatives.
The Madness of John McCain: If
McCain finally makes it to the White House, the U.S. will surely start new wars, and not just in the Middle
East. With the world as his stage, the persona McCain has created — given visible expression by
what Camille Paglia trenchantly described as "the over-intense eyes of Howard Hughes and the clenched,
humorless jaw line of Nurse Diesel" — will have every opportunity to act out his fantasies of soldierly
greatness.
Hillary
Still Stalling on Tax Returns. The junior senator from New York isn't the only presidential
candidate who hasn't made tax records public. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican
nominee, hasn't either. His campaign says that he'll make his records public in the next month or
so. ... The delays by Clinton and McCain perplex some government watchdog groups, which note that past
presidential candidates had no trouble producing their tax returns in a timely fashion.
8 reasons I won't vote for John McCain:
[Sen. John] McCain has already locked arms with the Kennedys, Feingolds and liberal Democrats to keep social
conservatives "out" of politics while they burn our constitutional republic to the ground. … McCain
wrote the bill helping Ted Kennedy in his attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens (McCain-Kennedy), so why
should we believe he'll veto the Democrat plan to de-fund and tear down the border fence and issue driver's
licenses and voter registration cards to illegal aliens?
We're All Gun Nuts
Now. Like Obama and Clinton, McCain favors closing the "gun show loophole," which allows private
individuals, unlike licensed gun dealers, to sell their guns without performing background checks. This
has a decent chance of becoming law in the next couple of years.
The McCain Mutiny: "No other modern
politician has received as much favorable press as John McCain has in the past decade," write (plainly
irritated) David Brock and Paul Waldman in "Free Ride: John McCain and the Media." "The rules are
simply different for McCain." Boy, are they. Though he flip-flops and prevaricates like any
politician, McCain all but has the phrase "straight talker" tattooed on his skull-plate. A lifetime
Beltway insider and third-generation naval officer with an heiress wife and an heiress mother is still
referred to, without irony, as a "Man of the People."
McCain rejects pastor's endorsement.
Republican John McCain on Thursday [5/22/2008] rejected endorsements from two influential but controversial
televangelists, saying there is no place for their incendiary criticisms of other faiths. McCain rejected
the months-old endorsement of Texas preacher John Hagee after an audio recording surfaced in which the preacher
said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land. McCain called the comment "crazy and
unacceptable."
Hagee, Hitler, and
the Holocaust. Media elites have pounced on this story to help McCain's likely general election opponent,
Barack Obama, but many understandably have been startled by the "Hitler" headlines. If the media coverage were even
remotely accurate, the concern would be warranted. But put into context, Hagee's "Hitler" sermon is, at worst,
questionable theology -- that also happens to have some Jewish adherents.
John McCain and the global warming train:
Liberals have denominated McCain a maverick because he has taken so many positions contradictory to his party's
platform and to the conservative ideology that undergirds it. Now that he is the putative Republican nominee,
you don't hear much about his maverick nature, but it's certainly not because he's changed his ways in opposing
his party.
McCain
makes three in declaring war on global warming. Sen. John McCain's Portland-based global warming
manifesto now puts all three presidential candidates — and both major parties' leaders — firmly
in favor of aggressive cuts to greenhouse gases.
Might as well vote for Obama if this is true. What's the difference? McCain Differs With
Bush on Climate Change. Senator John McCain sought to distance himself from President Bush on
Monday [5/12/2008] as he called for a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. … In
what his campaign promoted as a major speech on climate change, the Arizona senator renewed his support for
a "cap-and-trade" system in which power plants and other polluters could meet limits on greenhouse gases by
either reducing emissions on their own or buying credits from more efficient producers.
McCain
and Climate Change: Sci-Fi as Policy. Without amazing breakthroughs, to even come close to
such goals as reducing carbon emissions to 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050 — when, keep in mind, the
economy could be four times as large as it was a decade and a half ago — would require draconian decreases
in economic growth tantamount to a global depression.
Green Gasbag. If Republicans
are going to be stampeded by phony environmental alarms and propose terrible public policies in the name of
these scams, what … do we need Democrats for? America is so far gone in the global warming superstition that
the Republican candidate for president (the REPUBLICAN!) is proposing a Soviet scheme to take decisions about
energy use out of the private sector where they belong and turn them over to politicians and bureaucrats.
If there's a quicker way to make America into a Third World nation, pray tell me what it is.
Seven
Ways McCain Can Use Energy to Beat Obama. (#1) Stop talking about global warming. Or
at least don't talk about it nearly as much as "energy independence." … (#2) Ban the color green.
Not only is it a less-than-flattering hue for McCain; but it implies a kinship with an anti-oil, anticoal,
antidrilling, antieconomic-growth agenda. (#3) Propose drilling in ANWR while standing in ANWR.
A flirtation with Chicken
Little: This is no time for John McCain to be John McCain. The Republican nominee-to-be,
who flirted with the idea of joining John Kerry on the Democratic ticket four years ago, now wants to be
Al Gore. Campaigning in Oregon, he told an audience in Portland — which rivals
San Francisco as the most self-consciously politically correct city in America — that he's a
true believer in Al's "cap-and-trade" solution to global warming.
McCain's
Global Warming Plan Threatens Economy. Exactly one year after angering conservatives with an amnesty bill for
illegal aliens, Sen. John McCain managed to fire up the right again last week — only this time he's proposing a massive
plan to combat global warming that would have severe consequences for the U.S. economy.
The Editor says...
Here's a news tip: Every left-wing environmentalist's global warming plan threatens
the economy.
Race Cards and Speech Codes: The
question for Republicans is whether they will let themselves be intimidated, as they too often are, from using
legitimate political weapons to defend what they still have. It is thus a sign of trouble ahead that John
McCain declared the Rev. Wright off limits and berated the North Carolina GOP for bringing him up. Let
your adversaries circumscribe the content of your campaign, and you usually end up losing your campaign.
If The GOP Wants To
Govern Like Democrats, Why Have a Separate Party? In a national poll conducted by Los Angeles
Times/Bloomberg released earlier this month, only 4% of respondents replied that the environment as a whole
was one of the most important issues in this election. More surprisingly, only 6% of Democrats thought
so! So why is McCain so focused on climate change? Because it is one of the mainstream media's pet
issues, and McCain is trying to get in the media's good graces again.
A
False Moderate? Contrary to some depictions, McCain is not a moderate. He is a conservative
with a habit of massive, eye-stretching heresy. He has supported gun control legislation, the expansion
of the AmeriCorps service program, and campaign finance and comprehensive immigration reform — leaving
many conservatives in fits of sputtering, red-faced outrage. He joined the moderate Gang of 14 on
judicial nominations and supports mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.
Conservatives
Ready To Battle McCain on Convention Platform. Conservative activists are preparing to do
battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping
to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming
enshrined in the party's official declaration of principles.
You Must
Choose Between Bad and Worse. During the Republican primaries some liberals had nice things to say about John
McCain; enough evidence alone to demonstrate that he is not fit for the job. From his voting record, one would think
conservatives already understood this fact. But in a spectacular failure of good judgment they nominated McCain anyway.
Praise from those who stand against everything conservatives believe in somehow failed to set off a 10.0 on the Richter
Scale of political mistakes. Bad as he may be, though, McCain pales in comparison to Barack Obama.
John
McCain's volt from the blue. Want to be a multimillionaire? Then build a car battery that
can blow the doors off the Energizer Bunny. That was the eco-friendly pitch Monday from John McCain, who
proposed a $300 million government reward for anyone who develops an automobile battery that can power a
new age of plug-in hybrid or electric cars.
McCain
offers $300 million for new auto battery. Sen. John McCain hopes to solve the country's energy
crisis with cold hard cash. The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting thinks the government should
offer a $300 million prize to the person who can develop an automobile battery that leapfrogs existing
technology.
The Editor says...
This is an election-year scam. First of all, one lone inventor isn't going to come up with an idea like
that, just because this prize money is being offered. Several large companies around the world have been
working on improving battery technology for decades. Second, McCain is playing this game with someone
else's money. It's easy to offer $300 million because it isn't coming out of his pocket.
Third, the monetary reward for such a revolutionary new battery, if someone were to develop it, would be paid
by the free market which is the financial incentive for private companies to do the research. And
finally, who will judge the new technology? Who decides if this new battery is substantially different
from any other? The government would have a $300 million incentive to say it's nothing new,
no matter what an inventor produces.
McCain
Proves Amnesty is Political Suicide for the GOP. [Scroll down] The Democrats clearly believe that they're
going to be the ones to benefit politically from turning illegals into American citizens. That's the driving force
behind their push for an amnesty and their desire to keep the floodgates on our southern borders open. That brings us
to John McCain's presidential campaign. No Republican is more closely associated with amnesty than John McCain.
Why vote Republican if Democrats end up in the Cabinet? McCain says he will include
Democrats in Cabinet. Republican nominee John McCain said in an interview aired on Sunday he
would bring Democrats into his Cabinet and administration as part of his attempt to change the political
atmosphere in Washington.
Obama
& Friends: Judge Not? McCain has only himself to blame for the bad timing. He should
months ago have begun challenging Obama's associations, before the economic meltdown allowed the Obama
campaign (and the mainstream media, which is to say the same thing) to dismiss the charges as an act of
desperation by the trailing candidate.
There is only one reason to vote for John McCain, and this is it:
McCain
Says He Would Put Conservatives on Supreme Court. Highlighting an issue he plans to use
aggressively in the general election campaign, Sen. John McCain on Tuesday [5/6/2008] decried "the common and
systematic abuse of our federal courts by the people we entrust with judicial power" and pledged to nominate
judges similar to the ones President Bush has placed on the bench.
McCain
Assures Conservatives of His Stance on Judges. Senator John McCain reached out to conservatives
on Tuesday by vowing to appoint judges he characterized as strictly faithful to the Constitution and who did
not engage in what Mr. McCain condemned as "the common and systemic abuse of our federal courts."
The Supreme Court in the Balance.
The key to understanding the Presidential election this year is that the two candidates are diametrically opposed
on almost every major issue. In probably no other election since the Civil War have the differences
between the two candidates been so stark.…But nowhere are the differences between the candidates more
stark than on the issue of judges.
Some Legal
Activists Have Hearts Set on 'True Liberal'. If Obama had the opportunity to make an appointment,
it would be only the fourth nomination from a Democratic president in more than 40 years. And for
activists on the left, it could signal the opportunity to create a new dynamic for the court. "It is a
court with no true liberal on it, the most conservative court in 75 years," said Geoffrey Stone, a law
professor at the University of Chicago, where Obama once taught constitutional law.
The Editor asks...
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not a "true" liberal? That's what the Washington Post would have us believe.
The
Judicial Stakes: John McCain is getting catcalls for his speech on Tuesday declaring his
preference for Supreme Court Justices in the mold of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Various liberal
oracles are distressed, while Democratic chief Howard Dean detects a "radical right-wing judicial philosophy."
The McCain camp should be thrilled.
Dissenting opinion: Expect More Liberal Judges Under McCain Than
Clinton. McCain was one of the founders of the "Gang of Fourteen," which was created for the specific purpose
of blocking Bush's conservative judges. Furthermore, more than a few well respected people have reported that John
McCain called Judge Alito, "too conservative." That leaves no question as to what kind of judges will be nominated by
John McCain.
Caught in his own trap:
McCain's
passion for campaign finance limits cools. Sen. John McCain, a passionate
advocate of limits on campaign finances, is turning down government matching funds for the primary
season to free him to spend more money as he prepares for a general election contest.
McCain
Got Loan by Pledging to Seek Federal Funds. John McCain's cash-strapped campaign borrowed $1 million
from a Bethesda bank two weeks before the New Hampshire primary by pledging to enter the public financing system
if his bid for the presidency faltered, newly disclosed records show.
McCain
Loan Raises FEC Questions. The government's top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can't
drop out of the primary election's public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained
to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.
FEC
Warns McCain on Campaign Spending. The nation's top federal election official told Sen. John McCain
yesterday [2/21/2008] that he cannot immediately withdraw from the presidential public financing system as he
had requested, a decision that threatens to dramatically restrict his spending until the general election
campaign begins in the fall.
McCain
Loan Complicates Financing of Campaign. A bank loan that Senator John McCain took out late in
2007 to keep his presidential campaign afloat is complicating his desire to withdraw from public financing
for his primary effort. The Federal Election Commission, in a letter it released on Thursday [2/21/2008],
said Mr. McCain could not withdraw from public financing until he had answered questions about a $4 million
line of credit for borrowing that was secured, in part, in December by the promise of federal matching money.
Campaign finance
boomerang: John McCain must be wondering where it all went wrong. Way back in 2001, the senator
joined with ultra-liberal Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin in championing "The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act," which
was supposed to get the fat cats out of the election process. President Bush signed the legislation into law,
and it has become forever known as the "McCain-Feingold Act."
McCain,
eyeing public funding, returns donors' checks. In another sign that Senator John McCain is
preparing to take public financing, his campaign is returning general-election contributions to donors.
The campaign is asking contributors to instead write new checks to a special fund created to help McCain pay
legal and accounting expenses related to compliance with the public funding system.
McCain
Set to Take the Federal Financing Plunge. John McCain is on to track to become the first
presidential candidate to accept public financing in the 2008 general election, which would allow him access to
$84 million in taxpayer funds as long as he agrees to not raise or spend outside funds beyond that.
Dems.,
Seeking to Hamstring McCain, to File Public Financing Suit. The complaint faces some significant
hurdles. For one, the FEC is hamstrung from dealing with the complex legal issues by a shortage of
commissioners — four of six seats are vacant pending senate confirmations — and each
additional step in the suit would drag out the process. So long as it remains unresolved, McCain will
be able to continue to spend above the primary limits.
FEC fight leaves candidates hanging.
In 2004, the Federal Election Commission took 231 formal votes. This year, it may take none. With
November's elections a little more than six months away, a Senate stalemate over nominations has left the FEC
powerless to act on anything from John McCain's bid for $84 million in public financing to a stay-at-home
dad's request to pay himself a small salary from whatever campaign contributions he can raise as an independent
candidate for Congress.
McCain
Frequently Used Wife's Jet for Little Cost. Given Senator John McCain's signature stance on campaign finance
reform, it was not surprising that he backed legislation last year requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost
of flying on corporate jets. The law, which requires campaigns to pay charter rates when using such jets rather than
cheaper first-class fares, was intended to reduce the influence of lobbyists and create a level financial playing field.
Harry
Reid's Glass Slipper. All of this comes after Barack Obama opted out of the public financing
system for the general election while calling the system "broken." He'll now be able to greatly outspend
Mr. McCain in the fall, while the Republican will have to defend himself from charges that he spent too
much in the primaries. Thus is Mr. McCain rewarded for having so dutifully taken the liberal line on
campaign-finance reform.
FEC: McCain
didn't break any campaign finance laws. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain won a round
against Democrats on Thursday [8/14/2008] when the Federal Election Commission rejected their contention that
he violated campaign finance laws during the GOP primary.
Democrats
Protest McCain Finance Opinion. The Democratic National Committee is asking the Federal Election
Commission to postpone a decision — scheduled for its public meeting on Thursday [8/21/2008] — on
the issue of Senator John McCain's withdrawal from the public financing system for his primary bid. "We
are calling on the commission to remove the matter from its agenda and investigate our complaint further,"
said Joe Sandler, a lawyer for the D.N.C.
McCain loses to Obama -- Now what?
In the 2008 election, Senator McCain played by his McCain-Feingold rules, while Senator Obama
harnessed the fundraising and money laundering power of credit cards and the internet to cook up
a huge pool of money. The details of Senator Obama's fundraising scandals can be found
here.
What
Happens to Public Financing, When Obama Thrived Without It? The 2004 race marked the first time
both major nominees, Mr. Kerry and President Bush, decided to bypass the federal matching funds for the primary.
Mr. Obama became the first major party candidate to opt out of the system for the general election. The
move allowed him to continue raising private donations while Mr. McCain could not.
