November 03, 2005

Marty Meehan: A Democrat Who Gets Things Done

The species is rare -- a House Democrat who can, almost single-handedly, whip up just opposition to a measure that is otherwise destined for passage under suspension rules.

Consider what happened to HR 1606, known as the Online Freedom of Speech Act. At its essence, it would carve out -- or, preserve -- an exemption from most federal campaign finance laws for internet communications, and, of course, for bloggers.

It was popular. Bloggers liked it, obviously. Corporations and free-speech advocates favored it. The campaign finance reform community called it a major loop-hole -- corporations, unions, and individuals could spend as much as they wanted on internet communications and even (potentially) coordinate their activities with campaigns.

The House leadership quietly added it to the suspension calendar, bypassing committees. That allowed the bill to move to the floor unamendable, but it set the bar higher for passage: a two-thirds majority was needed.

And until this week, the leadership was largely convinced they had enough votes -- virtually all Republicans and a good number of Democrats.

Then Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA) began to whip. His office set up a warroom with Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) and public interest groups. Meehan, Shays and co. lobbied centrists and those Republicans who voted for campaign finance legislation. They created outrage that the bill was sneakily placed on the suspension calendar.

The vote yesterday was 225 to 182 -- enough for passage under normal rules, but not two-thirds.

"Now they'll have to bring it through committee and, with the opportunity for debate and amendment, it shouldn't be able to make it to the floor looking like it does now," says an aide to Meehan.

Posting on RedState.org, one of the bill's sponsors, Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, was more optimisitc. "We proved that we can pass this bill in the House under regular order. Working with leadership, I hope we can achieve this worthy goal before the FEC issues new regulations that will prohibit Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights over the Internet."

But for now, chalk up a victory for Meehan (and Shays.) [MARC AMBINDER]

Posted at 09:15 AM

Comments

What bloggers liked it? I blog and I thought it was far too broad an exemption, giving mass freedom to moneyed interests in the name of protecting individual writers.

I don't understand why there needs to be new rules for the Internet. Communication is communication, only the media is different.

NAR | 11.03.05 10:08 AM

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