Get Up, Get, Get, Get Down, CFR is a Joke in Your Town...

Brian Anderson on Campaign Finance Reform, the Fairness Doctrine, and the Online Freedom of Speech Act. It's a mostly partisan affair, blaming Democrats and the Left for attempting to use regulation to silence New Media. But he makes one salient point:

In deciding two campaign-finance reform cases in the months ahead, the Roberts Court, one hopes, will show greater enthusiasm for First Amendment protection of political speech than did its predecessor, which should have shot down McCain-Feingold. If neither Congress nor the Supreme Court repeals this unconstitutional, un-American travesty, we can expect election regulations, in the grim words of Justice Antonin Scalia’s McConnell dissent, "to grow more voluminous, more detailed, and more complex in the years to come—and always, always, with the objective of reducing the excessive amount of speech." Thus will our most effective real protection against "the actuality and appearance of corruption"—the First Amendment itself—be nullified.

The boldface is my own. CFR stems from the desire to prevent plutocracy. In a mono-media world, that's a real threat. But the solution to monied interests buying public space was never restricting access, but increasing access. In a world where a web site can hold as much sway as a 30-second spot, which is the more cost-effective? The internet itself will eventually nullify the mesmeric power of TV to shape the terms of debate. Daily Kos and Instapundit are all the Campaign Finance Reform we'll ever need.

And that's the reason I will never vote for John McCain. I'll give my vote to the Libertarians before I assent to that Praetorian sitting in the Oval Office. I don't care if Hillary gets the job instead: she's McCain in heels and lipstick as far as I'm concerned. Perfect prima donnas of the political class, the pair of them.