"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." - First Amendment

The Club for Growth has a round up of bloggers talking about the McCain-Feingold restrictions on free speech for the next 60 days.

For me...this legislation represents the single biggest reason to vote against John McCain or Russ Feingold in 2008, if they decided to run for President and at this point all signs point to them running.

McCain isn't liked by the conservatives in the Republican Party, for the most part. I do respect him for fighting waste, but that isn't enough for me to vote for the guy. But Feingold...he is adored by Democrats. He is often referred to as a civil libertarian, mainly because he voted against the USA PATRIOT Act. Civil libertarians advocate free speech, they don't work to get legislation passed to take it away.

President Bush signed the legislation into law, but in his signing statement he said:

[T]he bill does have flaws. Certain provisions present serious constitutional concerns. In particular, H.R. 2356 goes farther than I originally proposed by preventing all individuals, not just unions and corporations, from making donations to political parties in connection with Federal elections.

I believe individual freedom to participate in elections should be expanded, not diminished; and when individual freedoms are restricted, questions arise under the First Amendment.

Outside of the USA PATRIOT Act, the McCain-Feingold Act is the worst piece of legislation passed by Congress since the Alien and Sedition Acts.

- Cato @ Liberty has more.
- The Club for Growth has the list of anti-free speech Republicans.
- Here is a good editorial on the mistake known as McCain-Feingold.