LIBEL by New York Times

by J. Edward Pawlick

Reserve Yours Now!

When the McCain-Feingold so-called campaign reform act reached your desk you
said you thought it was unconstitutional. But you signed it anyway.

Next time a bill reaches your desk you think is unconstitutional, please
veto it. We can no longer depend on the Supreme Court to uphold the
Constitution.

Oh, and by the way, if you do get the chance to appoint Members to the
Supreme Court, I surely hope you appoint people like Justices Scalia and
Thomas. We must have Justices like those men if we have any chance of
saving the Constitution, or at least what little is left of it.

Now for additional comments:

When that bill passed the Congress, I was sure that the Supreme Court would
at least find the free speech aspects of the bill unconstitutional. In fact,
I couldn’t find a constitutional lawyer on either side of the political
spectrum that didn’t believe the same thing.

How it is that within 60 days of a general election issue, groups can no
longer tell voters that a Member of Congress votes pro-abortion, against
guns, against the environment or whatever else is beyond me. Very little of
what happens in Washington shocks me, but I am still in a state of shock
over that decision.

President Bush may have felt that if he vetoed that bill, it would have been
overridden. However, few vetoes are ever overridden. The Omnibus Child
Development bill passed Congress in 1971 by a vote of 95-5 in the Senate and
with a single dissenting vote (Earl Landgrebe R-IN) in the House. President
Nixon vetoed the bill. The veto was upheld in both houses of Congress. Had
Bush vetoed that bill, I am confident there would have been one third plus
one in this Congress to uphold it.

I wonder how many Members of Congress who voted for McCain-Feingold did so
thinking that surely the Supreme Court would find it unconstitutional.
Probably enough to have defeated the bill if they had known the outcome.

We need President Bush now to support legislation to repeal that portion of
the bill that deals with free speech. He has good reason to do so. If issue
groups can’t let voters know his positions on various issues, he could lose
the 2004 election. Politicians often lie. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, one of
the most reliable pro-abortion votes in the Senate, nevertheless distributes
literature in Catholic areas of the state such as Dubuque claiming he is
pro-life. The Democratic nominee for president may do the same thing on a
variety of issues. Without the ability of issue groups to tell the truth,
who knows what the public will believe.

Given the concern about this court decision expressed by various Members of
Congress, we just might have the votes to repeal that section of the bill
especially if we leave the question of soft money alone.
What happened with McCain-Feingold is a perfect example of bad legislation
being driven by the media. The public was never really concerned with
so-called “campaign finance.” It never showed up in a single unaided poll.
But legislators wanted to court favor with the media so they voted for a
bill that is supposed to take big money out of the political process. It won
’t and Members know it won’t but they voted for it anyway. And President
Bush didn’t want to be the bad guy and endure attacks by the media so he
signed a bill he thought was unconstitutional. Everyone hoped the court
would bail them out. It didn’t happen.

A respected judge told me that when looking for someone to put on the
Supreme Court, the President shouldn’t just look for someone who is
conservative. He should look for someone who has survived big time media
attacks without compromising his principles. That Justice told me that most
decisions are not made according to the Constitution but rather on what the
media will say about a decision.

The President can make up for his part of this fiasco by pushing for the
repeal legislation, and then if he gets a second term he can nominate people
who will actually rule according to what the Constitution says rather than
by what the New York Times editorial board thinks. Then we can forgive him
for what he has done. As to the Congress, it can pass the repeal legislation
and confirm the nominees that the President sends up. Then we can forgive
the Congress.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.