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This Is What John McCain Has Wrought
A panel of judges of rules that it's against campaign finance laws to advertise a film:
Attorney James Bopp argued that they should be considered "issue- oriented" speech because viewers aren't urged to vote for or against the Democrat.
"What's the issue?" asked Judge A. Raymond Randolph, a federal appeals judge sitting on a mixed panel to review the case.
"That Hillary Clinton is a European Socialist,' aren't you saying vote against her?"
Bopp disagreed because the movie did not use the word "vote."
"Oh, that's ridic...," Lamberth said, trailing off and ending the line of questioning.
Hey, some people (too darned many, in my opinion) like European socialists. Maybe it was a pro-Hillary ad.
It gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view).
The movie is scheduled for two screenings in theaters, once each in California and Washington. It is also being sold on DVD. Neither of those methods are regulated under campaign laws. The advertisements, however, are scheduled to run during the peak presidential primary season and would be regulated.
Bopp, who successfully led a challenge to one aspect of the campaign finance system last year, compared the film to television news programs "Frontline," "Nova," and "60 Minutes." That prompted Lamberth to laugh out loud from the bench.
"You can't compare this to '60 Minutes,'" the judge said. "Did you read this transcript?"
Apparently, the judge missed the "Sixty Minutes" episode in which Dan Rather used fake documents to do a hit job on George Bush six weeks before an election.
The Supreme Court should have thrown the law out in toto. But it looks to me, at a minimum, like they're going to have to at least interpret this (un)Constitutional abomination.
Posted by Rand Simberg at January 10, 2008 10:19 AM
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Comments
If you give them the chance, eventually McCain and the Democrats will work to close the DVD and theatrical 'loophole' to campaign finance laws too!
Posted by Brad at January 10, 2008 07:38 PM
Hillary is a European Socialist. That is exactly the model her wing of the party has followed for decades. They stopped mentioning that in the 60’s, however the model has never changed. The judge showed his colors and why he has no business being an objective arbiter of the law when he interpreted that statement as a negative attribute. There are few liberals that would feel it was a negative description if the opposition party and a majority of the citizens weren’t averse to the model.
Posted by jjs at January 12, 2008 08:14 AM
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