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I do not know whether to do some "told you so" victory laps or worry that so many people left this issue to be decided by the courts.

I am speaking of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance "Reform" bill. A special three-judge panel rejected this blight on the American Constitution in a 2-1 decision. That awful package passed by Congress tried to outlaw speech, specifically political speech, because some people are better at it than others. Think of it as socialism in action! I know that President Bush signed the bill into law, but he should not have, as this court ruling demonstrates. President Bush, like the supporters of the bill, was playing politics with this issue. Some people felt it better to appear to be doing something about this "problem" than to veto this clearly unconstitutional bill. I am not going to let President Bush off the hook on this issue, but the real wrath over this steaming pile needs to be directed at the actual perpetrators: McCain, Feingold and their supporters.

What the perpetrators of this stain on free speech were trying to do was "correct" the perceived imbalance between those with money and those without in the arena of political speech. There is not actually a problem in that arena, though. People who spend the most money on a campaign do not always win. So why did McCain, Feingold and their supporters try to foist off their unconstitutional measure on the voters? To answer that, just follow the money.

The people that stood to gain the most were Democrats and the mainstream press. Democrats because they are so bad at fundraising from average Americans, and thus at a disadvantage in overall money and the mainstream press because with almost every other voice silenced prior to an election, they would be the only ones providing opinions about the candidates. But what about McCain, you ask? He is neither a Democrat nor part of the press. No, he was just a useful fool for the movement. Just like the peace at any price people use well-intentioned people to cover their socialist tracks, the Democrats and the mainstream press needed some "cover" of their own. So McCain, who is genuinely concerned that the rich have undue influence, was recruited to be the cover boy for campaign finance "reform".

Now that the courts have injected a little sanity into this topic let us review the reasons why this bill, and all bills like it, should be directed towards the ash-heap of history.

• Speech is protected by the Constitution, especially political speech.
• There is no correlation between money spent on a campaign and the winner of a campaign.
• Favoring one group of people (the press) over another (everyone else) violates equal protection.
• Assuming that the group you have singled out for special favors is fair, impartial and unbiased puts the "ass" in assume.
• If I want to spend money to promote my brand of politics, then that is my choice. By spending that money I do not lessen anyone else's opportunities for speech, even if I spend millions, or even billions in that effort.
• Any law that is passed would be quickly by-passed, as the Democrats proved by setting up special funds for political speech as soon as the ink was dry on the McCain-Feingold bill.

I hope that some people who supported McCain-Feingold have learned their lesson. You do not promote free speech by suppressing it, even if your "intentions" are noble. The ends never justify the means. The problem is not with money being spent on political campaigns, it is with the belief that money corrupts. It is not money that turns an innocent person into a lawbreaker—that person has to be willing to break the law in the first place. The answer to any problems with laws being violated with regard to campaign financing is thus to prosecute those who break the law. Then again, we tried that, didn't we? What we got was "no controlling legal authority" and a Senate unwilling to look at the facts of laws being broken. It appears that what we need is congressional reform, not campaign finance reform! It is not the money, and never has been. It has always been the person accepting the money.

So my message to the members of Congress who supported McCain-Feingold is to heal yourselves, and stop blaming the inanimate objects used in the commission of a crime and go after the criminals. Hint: that means your fellow politicians who break the law. Instead of giving them a pass because you may find yourself on the hot seat some day, get rid of the bad apples that make the entire bunch of you look like craven opportunists. And it would also help if you actually stopped being craven opportunists.

For the record: when I speak my mind in this column, it has not diminished your opportunities to speak your mind any more than you voting infringes on the right of someone else to vote. Everyone needs to be able to speak their mind, whether they choose to spend one dollar or a million dollars to do so. Those that think money is the problem need to realize that it is the people who choose to break the law that are the problem. We thus do not need to reform campaign financing, we need to reform the people breaking the law.

Congress may think it is a radical idea, but they need to do a better job of policing themselves, and stop trying to claim that the money made them do it.

...the real wrath over this steaming pile needs to be directed at the actual perpetrators: McCain, Feingold and their supporters.

People who spend the most money on a campaign do not always win.

...this bill, and all bills like it, should be directed towards the ash-heap of history.

So my message to the members of Congress who supported McCain-Feingold is to heal yourselves, and stop blaming the inanimate objects used in the commission of a crime and go after the criminals.