When will the congresscritters realize that the First Amendment gives special protection to political speech? Not soon, I guess, as the House of Representatives refused to pass a measure ensuring the political speech on the internet remains as free as the Founders intended political speech to be.

Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign-finance law, the House decided yesterday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections.

The House voted 225-182 for H.R 1606, which would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments.
The vote in effect clears the way for the FEC to move ahead with court-mandated rule-making to govern political speech and campaign spending on the Internet.

Opposition was led by Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., who with Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., championed the 2002 campaign-finance law that banned unlimited “soft-money� contributions that corporations, unions and individuals were making to political parties.

“This is a major unraveling of the law,� Meehan said. At a time when Washington is again being tainted by scandal, including the CIA leak case, “it opens up new avenues for corruption to enter the political process.�

Actually, Marty, the internet politicking of the last few years has shown how more and freer speech can shed light on matters of public importance, and challenge the corruption that exists within the major parties and MSM.

Those who are more concerned about Constitutional principle than “political corruption� (freely expressed political opinions that threaten the interests of entrenched incumbents) see matters differently.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said the federal government should encourage, rather than fetter, a phenomenon that was bringing more Americans into the political process.

“The newest battlefield in the fight to protect the First Amendment is the Internet,� he said. “The Internet is the new town square, and campaign-finance regulations are not appropriate there.�

Without his legislation, Hensarling said, “I fear that bloggers one day could be fined for improperly linking to a campaign Web site, or merely forwarding a candidate’s press release to an e-mail list.�

Bloggers from liberal and conservative perspectives made similar predictions at a hearing on the subject in September. “Rather than deal with the red tape of regulation and the risk of legal problems, they will fall silent on all issues of politics,� said Michael J. Krempasky, director of the Web site RedState.org.

Some clearly will fall silent. Others, including this site, will continue to write and publish what we believe until we are silenced by the FEC’s jackbooted thugs. They will be prying this keyboard from my cold, dead fingers.