Conservatives to Bush: Veto It! Senate’s Passage of McCain- Feingold ‘Reform’ Measure Decried by Broad Conservative Coalition
Minutes after Senate passage of the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance “Reform” legislation, American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene sent a letter co-signed by more than sixty Conservative leaders urging President George W. Bush to veto the measure.
In the letter, the coalition faults the Congress for not doing its job: “It is a travesty that so many Members of Congress — on both sides of the aisle — seem to have either forgotten about or chose to intentionally ignore their oaths to ‘support and defend the Constitution.'” The letter reminds the President that the Congressional obligation was to, “fashion something that is fair, effective and, yes, Constitutional…Congress had its chance…and failed.”
The letter goes on to encourage the President to stand up for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “If you believe the proposed restrictions won’t pass muster by a Supreme Court that actually believes in free speech, please, do everyone a favor by vetoing it.”
The text of the letter appears below. The letter can also be found in .pdf format at http://www.conservative.org/
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President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20500
March 20, 2002
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the nearly one million members and supporters of the American Conservative Union, and the millions more represented by those groups who have co-signed this letter, we are writing to urge you to veto the ill-conceived and unconstitutional Campaign Finance “Reform” bill, passed by the House last month, and the U.S. Senate this afternoon.
As we have said all along, this is not about politics, but about principle.
It is a travesty that so many Members of Congress-on both sides of the aisle- seem to have either forgotten about or chose to intentionally ignore their oaths to “support and defend the Constitution” when they cast their votes on this legislation. It is, frankly, sad that such an affront to freedom has actually made it to the desk of the President of the United States.
Much of the debate over this legislation focused on which party will be helped or hurt by its various provisions, with very few commentators addressing the core questions of whether or not the sorts of restrictions on political speech envisioned by the bill’s authors are either wise or Constitutional.
We don’t know which party will ultimately benefit or be hurt by this legislation and what’s more, we don’t care.
The bill making its way to your desk completely redefines political speech and outlaws or criminalizes speech that every American has always believed to be protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Looked at from our perspective, you are being asked to sign a bill that tells those who might want to criticize the actions of politicians to just shut up.
We understand fully the reasons why you have taken the position up to now that Congress could not count on a Presidential veto on this legislation and must therefore work to fashion something that is fair, effective and, yes, Constitutional. Well, Congress had its chance … and failed.
So now it’s up to you!
You can pass the buck to the courts and hope that they will straighten out this mess. Or, you can veto it for what it is… A bad bill that criminalizes political speech and deserves to be sent back from whence it came.
If there was ever a time to use the veto pen this is it. We urge you to veto this legislation.
If you can honestly say that you believe legislated restrictions on political speech is at the core of what our Founders wanted, by all means, sign the bill. But if you believe the proposed restrictions won’t pass muster by a Supreme Court that actually believes in free speech, please, do everyone a favor by vetoing it.
Yours Sincerely,
David A. Keene, Chairman, American Conservative Union
Paul Beckner, Citizens for a Sound Economy
Thomas P. Kilgannon, Freedom Alliance
Ward Connerly, American Civil Rights Institute
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
Ken Connor, Family Research Council
L. Brent Bozell, Conservative Victory Committee
Morton Blackwell, Conservative Leadership PAC
Eric M. Licht, President, Coalitions for America
William Mellor, General Counsel, Institute for Justice
J.P. Backlin, Legislative Director, Christian Coalition
Craig Shirley, Craig Shirley & Associates
Mark R. Levin, Landmark Legal Foundation
Gary Aldrich, CNP Action, Inc
Kellyanne Conway, The Polling Company / Woman Trend
Alan M. Gottlieb, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Charles W. Jarvis, United Seniors Association
Lewis K. Uhler, National Tax Limitation Committee
Bruce W. Eberle, Eberle Communications Group
Jim Martin, 60 Plus Association
Andrea Lafferty, Traditional Values Coalition
Tom Phillips, President, Phillips PAC
Cleta Mitchell, Attorney, Washington D.C.
John Berthoud, National Taxpayers Union
David Keating, Club for Growth Advocacy
Jeff Hollingsworth, The National Conservative Campaign Fund
Fred L. Smith Jr., President, Competitive Enterprise Institute
James C. Roberts, American Studies Center
Richard A. Viguerie, ConservativeHQ.com
Richard Norman, The Richard Norman Company
David M. Bossie, Citizens United
Audrey Mullen, Patriot PAC
Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness
Chuck Muth, Republican Liberty Caucus
Robert Funk, American Shareholders Association
Bob Johnson, Chairman, Free Republic Network
Amy Ridenour, The National Center for Public Policy Research(a)
Allen Roth, New York State Conservative Party
Young Conservatives of Texas, David B. Kopel
Marc Levin, Columnist, National Review Online(a)
Austin Ruse, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute(a)
Shaun Marie Levine, Executive Director, Conservative Party of New York
Edwin Moore, James Madison Institute(a)
Steve Baldwin, CNP Action, Inc.
Jennifer Holder, NoInternetTax.org
Larry Pratt, Gun Owners of America
D. Eric Schippers, Center for Individual Freedom
David Almasi, Director of Project 21(a)
Charles W. Baird, Director, The Smith Center
Joan L. Hueter, American Council for Immigration Reform
Star Parker, Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education
Jake Haulk, Allegheny Institute for Public Policy(a)
James Parmelee, Republicans United for Tax Relief
John Taylor, Virginia Institute of Public Policy(a)
Brandon Dutcher, Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs(a)
Gary Jarmin, Christian Voice
Farha Ahmed, Muslim American Republican Caucus
Greg Kaza, Arkansas Policy Foundation(a)
Larry Cirigano, CatholicVote.org
Richard Falknor, Maryland Taxpayers Association
Gerry Dickinson, South Carolina Policy Council Education Foundation(a)
Darrell McKigney, Small Business Survival Committee
R. N. Dwight Patel, Director, Association of Concerned Taxpayers
Julie Versnel, American Political Action Committee
(Note a: Organization listed for identification purposes only.) http://www.usnewswire.com
CONTACT: Ian Walters of the American Conservative Union, 703-836-8602, ext. 16
