Now let me get this straight

In the universe of the American conservative, issue ads are not constitutionally free speech, but corporate donations to political campaigns are.



Bush's mindless, grinning bulldog Scotty McClellan on Wednesday:

Q There's a new ad by MoveOn.org that talks about — that criticizes Bush's record in the National Guard. What's your response to that, and what do you say to Harkin, who called Cheney a coward for not serving?



MR. McCLELLAN: We have been on the receiving end of more than $62 million in negative political attacks from these shadowy groups that are funded by unregulated soft money. And the President has condemned all of the ads and activity going on by these shadowy groups. We've called on Senator Kerry to join us and call for an end to all of this unregulated soft money activity. And so we continue to call on him to join us in condemning all these ads and calling for an end to all of this activity. . . .

George Will, December 30, 2002:

The authors' study of legislative decision-making accords with the extensive social science literature which concludes that legislators' voting is almost entirely a function of their own beliefs and the preferences of their voters and their party. The authors say that ``after controlling adequately for legislator ideology, (interest group) contributions have no detectable effects on legislative behavior.''



The Supreme Court should consider this when assessing the constitutionality of a law based on the bald assertion of ``corruption'' resulting from ``too much'' money in politics, a law that suppresses political participation.