McCain-Feingold Free-Speech Restrictions Take Effect Today, Leaving the “527 Media” in Near-Control

The Washington DC Examiner hits the nail on the head on the self-inflicted tragedy that will be visited on the political process beginning tomorrow (HT Club for Growth):

Thursday (is) 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 Unless McCain-Feingold is repealed, Labor Day will henceforth mark the point in the campaign when congressional incumbents can sit back and cruise, free of those pesky negative TV and radio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.

….. both parties and indeed much of the Washington political establishment are complicit in the assault on freedom of political speech for the rest of us.

None of this would surprise Alexander Hamilton, who argued in “The Federalist Papers” that written guarantees of things like freedom of the press would be purposely misconstrued by ambitious politicians and used as a pretext to do that which the Constitution banned: “I will not contend that such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power.” That is just about exactly what has happened now with the First Amendment and freedom of political speech, thanks to McCain-Feingold.

By election day, it should be clear to all reasonable persons that McCain-Feingold was a serious mistake ……

McCain-Feingold should not simply be repealed; it ought to be replaced with a new law that uses transparency in campaign finance rather than censorship in political expression.

The sunlight of transparency is the best disinfectant in government and politics, far better than imposing censorship on those who have something to say to their fellow citizens about members of Congress and their records.

Despite the temporary respite blogs have received from the Federal Elections Commission, who really thinks that the FEC won’t step in and regulate the daily Internet broadcast industry that has begun to blossom at sites like Crooks and Liars and Hot Air once it inevitably begins to take on a role as an end-run alternative media outlet during political campaigns?

I believe in free markets. That includes the free market of ideas. It is a product of misguided notions of “fairness” by its supporters, and an extraordinary amount of cowardice by its opponents, including the President, who refused to vote their consciences in the naive belief that the Supreme Court would simply strike it down.

McCain-Feingold must go. And for that matter, so must both of them.