Mickey Kaus has a good article in Slate on
Paul Wellstone’s amendment to McCain-Feingold that bans nonprofits from running
issue ads during the same 60-day limits as other groups. This was to have
been a poison-pill amendment, but it somehow managed to slide through and is
now law. (Until the Supreme Court gets their hands on it, at least.)
Wellstone, who likes to play the populist, should be ashamed of this amendment.
It’s clearly against the spirit of the Buckley v. Valeo Supreme Court
decision, and it’s also a slap in the face to the First Amendment. This quotation
from Wellstone is particularly frightening:
"If you do not [pass McCain-Feingold]… you are going to have a proliferation
of these organizations. Republicans for Clean Air, Democrats for Clean Air,
People Who Do Not Like Any Party for Clean Air, Liberals for Clean Air,
Conservatives for Clean Air, Citizens for Dirty Air—I don’t know what it will be.
Another example is the Club for Growth. This was an outfit that ran attack ads
against moderate Republican congressional candidates in the primary.
"
I know what it will be – free speech, Senator Wellstone.
Here’s a copy of The
Federalist Papers No. 10. Read it. Several times. Then see if you think having a plethora of special interest groups is bad for government.
This notion that denying the rights of political speech to certain groups
before elections is rediculous. Any political scientist worth his or her salt would
tell you that the notion that people make up their minds in the 60 days before
an election isn’t true. Banning these ads is only going to make it so that the
influence of money is stronger, and it limits the ability of regular citizens to join political organizations and leave their mark on the electoral process. McCain-Feingold should have never
been passed, President Bush never should have signed it, and the Supreme
Court is virtually assured to kill it soon.
Who someone can be a professor at what’s supposed to be a great liberal
arts college as Carleton can know so little about politics is quite a shame. I’m
waiting with anticipation for my chance to vote him out of office…
