Archive for June, 2005

Mr. Smith Quits Washington

Published by Ryan Sager June 20th, 2005 in Misc. Speech and Misc. Self Promotion. 0 Comments

A farewell to Brad Smith, upon his departure from the FEC — my most recent column in The Post:

Later this summer, the First Amendment will lose its most valuable ally in the Bush administration: FEC Commissioner Brad Smith.

From his perch at the Federal Election Commission, Smith has long sounded a brave — if lonely — note of caution against America’s increasingly disastrous experiments with campaign-finance reform. But with his term expired, and many feathers ruffled (both his own and others’) in the five years he’s been in Washington, he has decided to return to teaching law in Ohio at the end of August.

…

Worse than Smith’s departure itself, however, is the domino effect that the process of replacing him could set off. Currently, four out of the six FEC commissioners (the body is composed of three Republicans and three Democrats) are just “acting” commissioners — their terms expired, but no replacements have been named. Smith speculates that his departure could prompt the White House to name replacements.

But what kind? Traditionally, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have taken the lead in nominating candidates.

There is fear, however, among campaign-finance experts close to the Republican Party, that the White House might scrap the traditional system — and basically hand it over to McCain.

This last part is especially troubling, and is something free-speech partisans should be watching over the next few months.

Hero of Free Speech

Published by Ryan Sager June 15th, 2005 in Misc. Speech. 1 Comment

A hero of free speech is leaving the FEC:

SMITH PLANS DEPARTURE FROM FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

WASHINGTON — Bradley A. Smith, a member of the Federal Election Commission since 2000 who served as the Commission’s Chairman in 2004, has announced his intention to resign from the Commission and return to the faculty of the Law School at Capital University in Columbus Ohio.

In a letter to President Bush dated June 13, Smith said “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve at the FEC for the past five years. Much has been accomplished in this time. . . (t)he result is a fairer, more efficient, more streamlined organization.” His resignation is effective August 21, 2005.

Reflecting on his tenure at the FEC, Commissioner Smith emphasized the important strides made by the Commission in recent years, particularly in its efforts to enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act. “I’m happy to say we’ve made progress in speeding the enforcement process and improving due process for people and groups we investigate while also obtaining meaningful civil penalties where we find violations of the law. In the last three years we have assessed the highest penalties ever against a sitting Senator, an incumbent House member, a party congressional campaign committee, and a state party committee, which was also the largest penalty assessed against a registered committee of any kind.”

Noting that the Commission’s regulations now are nearly 400 pages long, Smith added, however, that he remained, “concerned about the effects our campaign finance laws are having on grassroots political participation. Political activity is more heavily regulated than at any time in our nation’s history.” As examples, Smith noted fines levied against individuals for contributing to family members running for office, and investigations of spontaneous political activity by individuals.

Commissioner Smith, who is the author of Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform, published by Princeton University Press, along with many articles appearing in law reviews and other academic journals, was nominated to the Commission by President Clinton on February 9, 2000 and confirmed by the Senate on May 24 of that year for a term that expired on April 30, 2005. By law, members of the Federal Election Commission nominated after 1997 may serve one six-year term, with the terms of two Commissioners expiring every two years. They may continue to serve after the expiration of their terms until a replacement is appointed.

The First Amendment will be poorer for Smith’s departure from the FEC — and all of us a little more vulnerable to the depredations and usurpations of men like John McCain.

UPDATE: I should also note this interview that Tech Central Station just did with Smith. It goes into the absurdity of campaign-finance law… especially as relates to the Internet.

I Hate Juries

Published by Ryan Sager June 13th, 2005 in Misc. Miscellany. 5 Comments

Michael Jackson’s “not guilty.”

You know what that means: SLEEPOVER!!!

Randi’s Test

Published by Ryan Sager June 9th, 2005 in Misc. Education and Misc. Self Promotion. 0 Comments

Today, the UFT’s charter school goes up for a vote with the SUNY trustees. It would be an atrocity for these enemies of education reform to be granted a charter while they fight against the rights of all New York City children to escape the unionized hell holes we call our public schools.

To wit, my most recent Post column:

Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, has long had the ability to play puppet-master with New York’s politicians. Today, we’ll learn whether the strings of her cash- and vote-rich union have now extended so far as to ensnare two men who hope to have futures within this state’s Republican Party: Secretary of State Randy Daniels and prospective Sen. Clinton challenger Ed Cox.

Daniels and Cox, who are on the board and can stop the school, might want to think long and hard before betraying their conservative bases.

I Hate Campaign-Finance Reform, Part One Million

Published by Ryan Sager June 8th, 2005 in Misc. Speech and Misc. Self Promotion. 0 Comments

My latest column at Tech Central Station, on why the government is looking to crack down on free speech on the Internet:

The Internet resembles in many ways the campaign-finance reformers’ long-sought utopia: full public financing of political campaigns. While the government is of course not financing anyone on the Internet, the outcome is the same: For an absolute pittance, every idea, every political philosophy, every candidate has access to a soap box.

The only limitation is how many people care to listen.

Why, when the free market has gone and created the exact state of affairs the reformers have long claimed to desire, are the McCains of the world looking to crack down?

Because the reform movement has never been about freedom. It has always been about control.

Freedom’s just another word for something new to regulate.

As Goes Florida

Published by Ryan Sager June 1st, 2005 in Misc. Education and Misc. Self Promotion. 0 Comments

The school-choice war continues in Florida:

What a wonderful win it could be for the Democratic Party: a lawsuit by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers yanking hundreds of low-income students out of successful public and private schools and stuffing them back into the failing public schools from whence they came.

These are the stakes as one of the most important school-choice lawsuits in the country, Holmes v. Bush (that’s Jeb Bush), comes before Florida’s Supreme Court this June.

My column on Tech Central Station.

 

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