Hmmm, maybe I begin to understand George's plan...

I may have been a bit hasty in my blog yesterday regarding Bush's announcement with John McCain to sue the FEC to stop the 527s. The following article in The Washington Times lays out the latest moves by George and John:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040827-121044-8895r.htm

The article also includes comments from the Democrats to the effect; "Oh this is just going through the motions, they know that they'll never be able to prevent these ads, and certainly not in the next two months." So! Either the DNC is equivocating due to a deep concern about removing MoveOn and ACT, etc. as Kerry tools, or, the DNC doesn't expect anything to change and is a bit peeved that George got the high ground on this issue.

Kerry's shameless and transparent attempt to get the President to attempt a more direct, personal intervention to stop ONLY the Swifties has fallen on its face. Kerry wanted to appear magnanimous by quickly running the "McCain criticizing Bush" ad, and then removing it in a very public way, trumpeting his actions. He thought this would pressure Bush to step on the Swifties, WRONG. Not only does Bush have no control over the Swifties, he's not going to fall for the one-sided 527 disengagement for which Kerry was angling. Kerry ceded to Bush the high ground on the issue due to his lack of support for stopping ALL 527s and doing without the estimated 100 mil in his (Kerry's) "Bush is a Nazi" 527s.

I was pretty pissed that George is proposing to strengthen the McCain/Feingold Act instead of reacting strongly against censorship, and I still am. This law has got to be repealed, I will never be silenced in my opinions, and no one else should be either.

But I have to realize that George is taking the customary step towards the Liberals that all Republican presidential candidates make 3 months before an election. His more liberal RNC platform, his immigration ideas, his lack of hard-core conservative issue RNC speakers, etc. - it's all (or I hope mostly) window dressing to attract more folks from the Kerry camp. I don't care much that religious folks will be under-represented, but I had hoped for a stronger platform with regard to reducing government spending and stopping illegal immigration.

HOWEVER, elephants and donkeys aside, silencing 527s and other political speech is in the 'best' interests (at least the cynical interests) of all politicians - Dems in particular want to win no matter what. The media loves it too - removing non-media reporting during election cycles consolidates media influence over elections. Lawyers like this as well, it places them in a stronger position during elections - who do you think will be called upon to denounce so-called McCain/Feingold 'violators'?

John McCain needs to admit that while he may have been honestly trying to remove the corrupting influence of money in politics, he's created an unconstitutional and very dangerous law. Any law that attempts to remove the 'people' from 'government of, by, and for the people', or redefine who those 'people' are, must be struck down or it's revolution time again.

Here's an editorial, also from the Washington Times, that lays out these concerns:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20040826-084258-1547r.htm

McCain needs to lead an effort to repeal this law, and then enact a campaign finance reform law that actually works. I suggest removing the media's stranglehold on election coverage - election advertising rates are one of the biggest unreported scams in modern history. Doesn't take much thought to understand why, so...

How about a new government broadcast/cable channel dedicated, free of charge, to elections? The Election Channel, where it's all elections, all the time. No commercial advertising allowed, this would be non-profit, government funded, and provide FAIR and FREE election advertising, debates, polls, etc. Let the media go begging for political advertising and I guarrantee that costs will come down hard.

But ol' McCain better keep his laws out of my mouth, or there's gonna be trouble.

Adios MF,

Doug