Posted on 11/28/2006 7:20:01 AM PST by presidio9
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday that First Amendment rights need to be expanded and cited the elimination of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms as one solution.
Gingrich, a Republican, suggested allowing people to give any amount to any candidate as long as the donation is reported online within 24 hours.
"Just as tax lawyers always succeed in out-thinking the (Internal Revenue Service) because they stay after five and the IRS goes home, the private-sector lawyers will always out-think the (Federal Election Commission) because they stay after five and the FEC goes home," Gingrich told about 400 people at the Nackey Scripps Loeb First Amendment Awards Honors dinner.
Passed in 2002, the campaign finance law known as McCain-Feingold banned unrestricted donations from labor, corporations and the wealthy to the political parties. Gingrich said the reforms have failed and only led to more negative campaign ads via e-mail, television, direct mail and phone calls.
His attack on campaign finance reforms comes as he and one of the bills author's, Arizona Sen. John McCain, are eyed as potential 2008 GOP presidential candidates.
McCain has already formed a presidential exploratory committee while Gingrich says he will not make a decision until September.
Gingrich also spoke about the need to create different laws for fighting terrorism.
Noting the thwarted London terrorist attacks this summer, Gingrich said there should be a Geneva Convention for such actions that makes those people subject to "a totally different set of rules."
He also reaffirmed the Pledge of Allegiance, criticized attempts to ban its recitation and said the executive and legislative branches should watch over the courts.
In 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled that the pledge was unconstitutional when recited in public schools because of the reference to God. The Supreme
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
All they do is help the Democrats and the labor unions.
I wish Newt were electable...
Hunter/Gingrich in 08? I could vote for that ticket. At least, they'd be a damn sight better than McStain/Guiliani/Romney type RINO's.
McCain-Feingold "reforms": hateful anti-liberty, anti-Constitutional, anti-free speech totalitarianism.
McCain and Feingold are both petty tyrants who deserve to be tossed into the garbage can of history.
Only registered voters in the district should contribute money. That eliminates control by out-of-staters, foreign countries, corporations, labor unions and PACs. Money talks but it's not free speech.
Amen!
Senator McPain is going to get his knickers in a twist over talk like this. Good!
even this is BS........if I wanna sell everything, house, car, clothes, etc. and give it to a candidate, i should be totally free to do so..........
He is.
Do you forget:
-"the Gingrich Who Stole Christmas"
-three marriages and MESSY divorces
-his overall bad reputation in the media
-the ethics charges (which IIRC were NOTHING compared to many pols ethics issues)
Sanford/Gingrich.
Or the other way around since Sanford's young and Newt's getting old.
I'm beginning to grow fond of Newt again.
I make an annual donation to NRA and Ron Paul of Texas...
I'd like to think so, but here's my analysis:
Bush won because he got conservative turnout and enough of the independent vote.
Gingrich would get almost NONE of the Indy vote unless people have forgotten all the (mostly trumped-up) "corruption" he was accused of by the media in the 90s. He'd get the fiscal wing of the GOP for sure, and depending on his immigration stance and WOT views, he could probably get those too, but a lot of evangelicals would sit out. And he would get virtually NO Dem crossovers, he's as hated by the Dems as Hillary is by us.
Has Hillary reported the money that she is being sued over????
The Peter Paul scam she says she doesn't remember about, nor does she know Mr. Paul, nor does she remember being in California at his home with his wife and her husband?????
Amazing how the smartest woman in the world has such a lapse of memory /sarcasm on!
Newt would never run with Tancredo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.