Mitch McConnell and Free Speech

[Valin]

National Review:

 

Robert Costa

6/19/12

 

In the early Seventies, before he entered politics, Mitch McConnell was a young and unknown Kentucky lawyer. To help pay the bills, he taught night courses at the University of Louisville. In 1974, Watergate was not officially part of his civics curriculum, he recalls, but the congressional response to the Nixon scandal featured heavily in class discussions.

 

From afar, McConnell’s students debated the passage of amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act, which established new disclosure rules and spending limits. Many of the undergraduates were initially supportive of the measures, because of their anger toward Nixon, but after McConnell brought the First Amendment implications to their attention, a few of them switched their position.

 

Ever since, McConnell has continued to make a professorial case about the importance of deregulating political spending. As the elected leader of Senate Republicans, he wears many hats, but on a personal level, no issue has shaped his career more than the intersection of campaign financing and free speech. Late last week, he made two major addresses on the subject, first at the American Enterprise Institute and soon after at Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom conference.

 

McConnell’s multi-decade pushback against campaign-finance reformers — including members of the Senate GOP conference, such as John McCain — has not always been popular, he acknowledges. But as the Obama administration attempts to “micromanage” political speech, he says, his efforts are more than a pet project — they’re critical for every political group, conservative or liberal, that wants to speak up without Big Brother calling the shots.

 

(Snip)

 

 

(Note: the next challenge? American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock)