John McCain Regrets Free Speech During an Election

Earlier this week the Supreme Court began dismantling the thoroughly odious John McCain-Russ Feingold "Don't Hurt Politicians' Feelings Censorship Law." What part of the First Amendment's "Congress shall make no law …abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people…to petition the Government for redress of grievances" doesn't McCain and his cowering cohorts on Capitol Hill not understand?

Straight-talking McCain evidently can't stand it when voters want to straight talk back at him. So McCain denounced the Supreme Court's decision declaring,

"It is regrettable that a split Supreme Court has carved out a narrow exception by which some corporate and labor expenditures can be used to target a federal candidate in the days and weeks before an election."

Never mind that the actual case before the Supreme Court had nothing to do with unions or corporations, but involved a non-profit right-to-life group. But why shouldn't the UAW, GE, SEIU, or ADM be able to "target a federal candidate" and tell their fellow citizens why they think this or that glad-hander is a good public servant or an evil stooge? If the First Amendment doesn't protect political speech--especially criticism of politicians running for office--what does it protect?

Former reasoner Matt Welch's excellent dissection of McCain's authoritarian tendencies in the April 2007 issue is here.