Posted on 04/07/2006 1:42:31 PM PDT by SittinYonder
Washington, D.C. - Following the unfortunate passage of the highly contested 527 legislation (H.R. 513) that will dramatically reduce First Amendment protections of political speech, David Keating, Executive Director of the Club for Growth, the nation’s leading free-market advocacy organization with over 35,000 members, made the following statement:
“Passage of this Republican-sponsored legislation is nothing more than an outrageous assault on the First Amendment. The House Republicans may think they have made a wise political move, but subverting the Constitution in an attempt to make political gains is inexcusable and will shut down a crucial way to support the policies they profess to endorse.
“Legislators aren’t satisfied with their ability to control who votes for them through their partisan gerrymanders, but now want to control who says how much and when about their performance in office.
“Clearly, this is just a first step in completely shutting down any praise or criticism of Congress. If politicians have the power to do this to 527s, they also have the power to regulate speech by any other nonprofit group or business association.”
Rules [Committee] ranking member Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., criticized Republicans for focusing solely on 527 groups and not broadening the debate to 501c3 and 501c4 groups, also named for their tax code designation, which also enjoy campaign finance loopholes.
“I think you are missing a big part of this,” she said, “As soon as you try to pass anything, loopholes appear.” Slaughter called it a “grave mistake” to ignore other groups and asked House Administration Chairman Ehlers, whose committee has jurisdiction over the bill, if Congress was likely to enter into a similar debate on 501©s in the near future. “We just might,” Ehlers said.
Posted by Andrew Roth at April 5, 2006 07:17 PM |
What will be next?
</Groan>
Link to the vote tally:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll088.xml
Here are the brave House Republicans who voted NO on HR 513:
Bartlett (MD)
Chocola (IN)
Flake (AZ)
Fossella (NY)
Franks (AZ)
Garrett (NJ)
Gohmert (TX)
Hensarling (TX)
Istook (OK)
Jones (NC)
King (IA)
Mack (FL)
McMorris (WA)
Neugebauer (TX)
Paul (TX)
Pence (IN)
Shadegg (AZ)
Westmoreland (GA)
Does this effect TCFG? I send them a little every month and don't pay too much attention to their newsletters.
Call it an "Incumbent Protection Act" and it all begins to make sense.
This is just the predictable outcome of McCain-Feingold. Once you legalize the suppression of free speech, whoever is in power gets to determine who gets to speak. It will get worse and worse no matter who is in charge.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Yep, they can whine all they want. Those who wanted CFR now have to deal with the fallout. CFR was bull crap and so is this.
All this did was restrict George Soros....McCain Feingold already stabbed free speech in the heart.
("Conservative" my @ss.)
Absolutely right!
Of course, it didn't start with the First Amendment. And it won't stop at free speech. The Bill of Rights is now a laundry list to the federal government.
They are alienating their base and are too stupid to realize it....
BUMP
I hope so. I'd rather have gridlock than Democrat-lite. Give me a conservative President who knows how to use the veto and doesn't believe in making deals.
The greatest actual achievement of the Contract With America was shutting down the government, and they were too weak to continue it.
Pence/Paul in '08...
Bottom line, we don't want to make criminals out of non-citizen law-breakers, but we do want to make criminals out of citizen political speech participants unless they are members of Big Media.
Makes me wonder what in the world is going on with Michael Burgess, my Rep:
He used to be a reliable conservative, when he hadn't been in D.C. so long...
Wait a minute...!
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