More on FEC silliness

Today, more blogs have addressed the potential problem of the FEC trying to regulate political discussion on the internet. I think they worry too much. Let's look at the impossible pretzel such regs would create for the FEC.

First, the FEC cannot and will not try to claim that a private citizen cannot talk to his neighbors about politics. Whether in person, by telephone, smoke signals, handbills or internet e-mails, unincorporated citizens will always be able to communicate about politics.

Second, I believe that the only enforcement mechanism that the FEC has would be to declare that linking to an official campaign website somehow consititutes a contibution which is subject to certain limits. Even if they should try such a ridiculous formulation, the value of such a link is essentially zero. I actually would look forward to hearing an FEC regulator try to explain how a campaign volunteer working a phone bank for 8 hours is not a financial contribution, but spending a few seconds clicking a mouse and sending free e-mails is.

If they then argue that McCain-Feingold would be made unenforceable in the age of the internet, we'll applaud them for finally seeing the light -- albeit 5 years too late.