Sometimes Nothing Is A Real Cool Hand

Patterico makes an astute point about possible FEC regulation of blogs under McCain-Feingold:

I have repeatedly argued that asking the FEC for a media exemption is nothing more than asking our masters for permission to speak. We shouldn’t have to do it. And I’m not going to.

His plan - do nothing different, and let the chips fall where they may.

This dovetails nicely with Roger Simon's "Send In The Clowns" strategy.  (Wait, Roger didn't say that?)

Patterico also tips us to the latest non-reassurance from Sen. Feingold.

UPDATE:  A whole lot of nothing at Patterico, as bloggers take the pledge.

Comments

[Crank]

The FEC better understand that the blogosphere is up to its eyeballs in lawyers, and we ain't gonna go quietly.

In fact, trying to regulate the blogosphere is pretty much the reductio ad absurdum of campaign finance regulation, and might yet be the death of the whole project.

[steve sturm]

Since when has there been a government regulatory agency (SEC, CFTC, FEC) that has let it be deterred by a bunch of citizen attorneys? They have more money and more time (this is their day job) to put into the fight. More importantly, their ability to continually expand their regulatory sphere is at risk - they are the ones who will not back down.

And, despite the blogosphere's brave talk, there's clear precedent for regulating speech -whether it be commercial speech, the bona fide publisher test as applied by the SEC, or of course, the recent Supreme Court upholding of McCain-Feingold. Combine that with a regulatory-friendly Supreme Court that has no problem making things up as they go along and the result is a fight we're unlikely to win.

I've got more, much more, of my cautions to Patterico in particular and the blogosphere in general at this posting here

[Adam]

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