More On Being Stung
John Fund of the Wall Street Opinion Journal, has picked up on the story first broke in the New York Post, last Thursday which we posted on here. In his followup story entitled, Astroturf Politics, How liberal foundations fooled Congress into passing McCain-Feingold, he further develops and elaborates on the hi-jacking of the US Congress and the general public concerning campaign finance reform. The entire article can be read at the link above. The following is an excerpt of Mr. Fund’s article:
“The successful stealth campaign by the eight liberal foundations means we now have to live in the Brave New World of McCain-Feingold. Bradley Smith, a Federal Election Commission member, made news this month by warning that bloggers could face federal regulation because a federal judge had thrown out their legal exemption from campaign finance regulations. The Internet has been burning up with concern that bloggers could be hauled into court for, as Mr. Smith puts it, “any decision by an individual to put a link [to a political candidate] on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done.” Mr. Smith warns that “it’s very likely that the Internet is going to be regulated” by the FEC unless “Congress is willing to stand up and say, ‘Keep your hands off of this, and we’ll change the statute to make it clear.’ ”
McCain-Feingold did little in last year’s elections to limit the influence of money in politics, but a great deal to benefit incumbents and harm true grass-roots politics. Its ban on using soft money to run issue ads in the 60 days before an election mean that such ads will run earlier, make campaigns longer and allow incumbents to avoid criticism of their voting records. David Mason, who serves with Mr. Smith on the FEC, says that the incredible complexity of the bill is likely to lead to “invidious enforcement, singling out disfavored groups or causes” and “subjecting regulated groups to harassment by political opponents.”
How easily we accept what appears to be truth, only to discover it is not. Please see our post entitled, Discovery of Truth.
