Growls

Andy Roth, blogging at the Club for Growth, called it the year’s best editorial. I’ll let others make their judgment, but the editorial in today’s Examiner newspaper is well-worth reading, especially the first paragraph, which reads: “Something almost without precedent in America will happen Thursday. 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 Unless McCain-Feingold is repealed, Labor Day will henceforth mark the point in the campaign when congressional incumbents can sit back and cruise, free of those pesky negative TV and radio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.”

The Examiner editorial then goes on to urge that “McCain-Feingold should not simply be repealed; it ought to be replaced with a new law that uses transparency in campaign finance rather than censorship in political expression.”

Yes, the First Amendment does read, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” How McCain-Feingold became law is much too long a story to be told here, but the Examiner’s recommendation is a good start.