aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Turd two: money talks

The Boston Globe tells us that at the dinner honoring freedom of speech where Newt said we need a “different set of rules” and to “reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism” there’s one speech freedom he said he’d like to see further de-regulated:

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. [...]

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.

Via SusanG at Daily Kos, “Got that? Shut your mouth and let the rich and corporate donors open their wallets. It’s the American way. If this isn’t one of the sickest perversions of the original intent of the First Amendment, I don’t know what is.”

LATER: Playing the game Newt’s way, Salon reports, gay millionaires and their allies poured unprecedented sums into the 2006 election—and it worked. Said one, “I honestly think that federal campaigns should be publicly funded with identical dollars for every candidate. But this is the current system.”