 |
|
|
McCain-Feingold Comes Home to Roost By Rizzuto Tue Feb 05, 2008 - Oops! I guess John McCain couldn't have foreseen this little bit of irony when he co-sponsored the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. It's going to take a big bite of the senator from Arizona's ass, should he be the Republican nominee this year. We've been hearing for some time about "Hillary: The Movie", a documentary about Hillary Clinton produced in part by Dick Morris. Apparently, commercials for said movie would fall under the "blackout period" spelled out by McCain-Feingold. This from the LA Times: David N. Bossie, who made a name for himself as a relentless investigator of the Clintons during the 1990s, has released a 90-minute documentary on the New York senator. His targets include not just her but the campaign-funding regulatory law known as McCain-Feingold, one of the signal legislative accomplishments of another presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Bossie's group is challenging the law's limits on its efforts to promote the movie and has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The litigation underscores the difficulty of drawing lines when money, politics and free-speech principles clash. "Hillary: The Movie" includes a series of interviews with Clinton critics, including Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich and Dick Morris. "If you want to hear about the Clinton scandals of the past and present, you have it here!," Citizens United, Bossie's group, says on its website. The group, a nonprofit corporation, is free to promote its movie and sell DVDs on its website. But one provision of McCain-Feingold makes it illegal to use corporate or union money for "any broadcast, cable or satellite communication" if it "refers to a clearly identified candidate for federal office" within 30 days of a primary election or a convention or within 60 days of a general election. That "blackout period," as it is known, has covered California and much of the nation for the last month as the primary elections were pending. Damn, a critical documentary would have been a nice ace up your sleeve during what could be a hotly contested race...to bad John...
Comments : 0 Comments |
|
|
   |
del.icio.us
