Beyond our editorial and what I’ve already said, one more thing is worth repeating about the Democrats’ efforts to repeal the First Amendment and gut free speech, something that applies to conventional campaign-finance laws, too: Congress is seeking for itself the power to determine who may criticize members of Congress and challenge them in the public square, and under what conditions such criticism and challenges may be conducted. Congress would have the power to make unlicensed criticism of Congress and its members a crime. The temptation for incumbents in such a situation to stack the deck in their own favor would of course be irresistible, as indeed current campaign-finance laws are an integral part of the incumbency-protection racket.
Senator Harry Reid’s assault on the First Amendment is not only cynical, it proceeds from deeply corrupt motives.