Wes Vernon
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005

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  Rare is the occasion when Congress steps up to the plate and says “Ooops! We goofed.” That kind of humility does not exactly blanket the political landscape in Washington.

A key member of Congress says he and others will introduce legislation to repeal the anti-free speech sections of the so-called campaign finance “reform” law. He also wants to see to it that the scandalously expensive prescription drug law is changed so as to serve only as a safety net for those truly in need.

Representative Mike Pence, a Republican from Indiana, cheerfully acknowledges this may make him “the skunk at the garden party,” but he is determined to right what he and millions of Americans see as terrible wrongs.

His personal attention to these issues is significant because the Hoosier is the point man for organized House conservatives. He is the newly-elected chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of nearly 100 (and counting) House conservatives.

President Bush signed the McCain-Feingold law on finance “reform” in the dead of night, believing that parts of it would be held unconstitutional. His belief was wrong. The Supreme Court, to the surprise of both advocates and opponents of the new statute, held it was okay to curb political speech by “outside groups” 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election.

Supporters of the law were “dumbstruck” when the court “carte blanche approved all of it [McCain-Feingold],” Pence told a group of reporters at the National Press Club. The congressman was one of the plaintiffs in the court case trying to persuade the High Court to strike down the centerpiece of the law.

Supporters had told him privately, “We’re going to beat you on everything else, but you’re going to get the First Amendment stuff.” Even they got more than they had hoped.

We pause to note for the record that members of the U.S. Congress, elected by the people, knowingly had sponsored legislation they knew was an unconstitutional abridgement of their constituents’ freedoms.

Given the power and influence of Senator John McCain, the co-author of the bill, Pence acknowledges this part of his group’s conservative agenda will cause a political firestorm.

Congressman Pence says Capitol Hill needs to “reassert the principle that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech of Americans.”

He might have added the law is a proven total flop in its advertised goal of “getting the money out of politics.” George Soros, Michael Moore and others have found there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. Thankfully, the Swift Boat Veterans also understood that fact in time to become pivotal in bringing to light John Kerry’s history with the Vietnam War.

The other “skunk at the garden party” move by the three-term lawmaker and many of his conservative colleagues on the RSC will be an effort to eliminate the entitlement part of the prescription drug law.

They will introduce legislation to narrow the benefits to those truly in need. The Midwest lawmaker estimates that would involve about 25% of new law’s largesse. Many fear the prescription law, passed in the wee hours after much arm-twisting, will make it difficult, if not impossible, to keep taxes low in the future.

So that should give these two repeal efforts considerable momentum in the House. What about the Senate? Will that “deliberative body” continue to be the graveyard of conservative initiatives?

Pence says there is good reason to hope that logjam may be loosened. He cites “the magnificent seven,” the new conservative senators just elected to the 109th Congress. For example, Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. He is often referred to as “the next Jesse Helms.”

One conservative leader opined to me that in fact, Coburn, who has been studying the Senate rules very carefully since his election, will actually be “better than Jesse Helms.” Or as Pence puts it, “The very idea of Tom Coburn in the Senate is just delicious to me.”

The White House, of course, won’t comment on legislation before it gets to the president’s desk. Let it be noted, however, that President Bush expressed doubts about McCain-Feingold when he reluctantly signed it.

As for channeling prescription drug benefits only to the needy, that is something he wanted to do in the first place. All that needs to be done is to get some clean repeal bills to the White House, and there is every reason to believe the president will sign them.

The president is not alone in wanting to “spend political capital.” The feisty conservatives on the Hill intend to do likewise. Certainly Congressman Mike Pence is positioned for that leadership. He is fresh from a 67% victory. Is that a mandate, or what?

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