While I am in rant mode, let me get this one in. The Democratic majority in Congress has been devoting so much time and energy to embarrassing President Bush over Iraq (though no time at all, so far as one can see, to forging a policy of their own) that they are in danger of not passing anything at all. So now they are trying to rush through a bill to restrict lobbying. In matters of legislation, speed conceals things that ought to be thoroughly discussed. Here is John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal:
The legislation may be amended on the floor to restrict grassroots groups that encourage citizens to contact members of Congress. The amendment, pushed by Rep. Marty Meehan of Massachusetts, would require groups that organize such grassroots campaigns to register as "lobbyists" and file detailed quarterly reports on their donors and activities. The law would apply to any group that took in at least $100,000 in any given quarter for "paid communications campaigns" aimed at mobilizing the public.
So groups that encourage citizen participation would be required to "register" with the government, and name names. There is nothing wrong with this except that it is clearly unconstitutional.
The First Amendment specifically prohibits Congress from abridging "the right of the people . . . to petition the Government for redress of grievances." The Supreme Court twice ruled in the 1950s that grassroots communication isn't "lobbying activity," and is fully protected by the First Amendment. Among the groups that believe the Meehan proposal would trample on the First Amendment are the National Right to Life Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union. The idea goes too far even for Sen. John McCain, who voted to strip a similar provision from a Senate lobbying reform bill last January.
There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that, in the United States, attempts to control political speech by such means always fail. Trying to keep money out of politics is like trying to keep water out of your basement in Aberdeen: the sump pump is a way to live with failure. Set the limit at $100,000? A group that reaches the threshold will simply break into two fifty grand a piece grass roots organizations.
The bad news is that this creates a Byzantine system where it is ever more difficult to tell who is doing what.
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