First NRO readers wanted to know the title of the Sam Huntington book I wrote about today. Now they want to know who Brad Smith is and what the article he wrote for National Review is. Brad Smith is chairman of the Federal Election Commission and happens to be a fervent believer in political free speech, which makes him a natural enemy of John McCain. Smith’s piece is in our May 3rd. issue and is titled “Boomerang: Republicans should not try to beat Democrats at their own campaign-finance game.” This is how Smith ends the piece: “Twenty-five years ago, Ronald Reagan wrote to a campaign supporter as follows: ‘Maybe one day some sanity will return to government, and some of the more repressive campaign laws will be repealed. Experiencing them from the inside as a candidate, I can assure you they are not helpful to the democratic process — namely in allowing the candidates to get their message to the greatest number of people.’
That — and not an aggressive and statutorily questionable expansion of the regulatory regime — is the Reagan legacy.”
No wonder McCain is attacking him.