Regarding FEC Commissioner Brad Smith’s incendiary comments that McCain/Feingold could lead to a crackdown on blogs . . . I wonder if Smith, a sworn enemy of the speech restrictions he is supposed to impose in his capacity at the FEC (for which Smith gained the sworn enmity of McCain), is strategically baiting bloggers to help drum up a backlash against M/F.
Having seen Smith, who seemed to me a true blue libertarian, speak at an IHS seminar I ran a couple of years back, I think it’s pretty likely.
“I want to note that the growth of regulation generally, or more precisely, the growth of the administrative state, is itself smothering democracy in America, not only in its particulars, but in its general, ubiquitous presence.”
Bradley A. Smith, speech delivered at the Catholic University Law Review’s Election Law Symposium on September 23, 2000.
Let me just say, before it becomes illegal: Brad Smith for President!