Brad Smith on Campaign Finance Reformers

Former FEC Commissioner Brad Smith tag teams with Allison Hayward and does his own little body slam on the campaign finance reformers views of HR 1606, the On-line Freedom of Speech Act.

The "reform" groups write, "''Our groups strongly support the free speech rights of bloggers and believe that the Internet is an important and positive development for political discourse and activities, and for increasing the number of small donors in politics.'' But that's for public consumption.

In their briefs to the Court, represented by lawyers working for at least two of the groups now claiming to "believe that the internet is a ... positive development," they described (or approvingly quoted others describing) anything less than a fully regulated internet as, "a loophole;" "a step backwards;" "a poison pill;" and "anti-reform." (See page 25 of brief.) They specifically rejected the notion that the internet's inexpensive nature made it different from other forms of communication, and they specifically called for the FEC to regulate email communications (see page 23 of brief). So let us not put too much trust in their protestations of fondness for the net.

Like Allison and Brad, I believe the reform groups, in the words of Shakespeare, "doth protest too much."

Spending a great deal of time in this medium as I do, I have no worries about the "corrupting influence" of the internet and the freedom of speech on the internet.