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George Will isn't the only one who needs to get over his hurt feelings about campaign finance reform. In the great scheme of things, it's just not that big an issue. I supported McCain in 2000 despite his support for campaign finance reform, knowing full well that Bush would have to sign it if it passed. Gee, I was right. And what happened? Not much. The money just flows through different channels. It's not a friggin' crisis, people.

Meanwhile, two further points. First the absolute fact is that in 1992 and 1993, the official Republican congressional position on campaign finance reform was to ban "soft money." As Casey Stengel said, you could look it up. I know, because I was there. To blame Fred Thompson for apostasy for supporting something in 1996 that had so recently been the official party position is just nuts. Yes, nuts. Second point: On the subject of campaign finance reform, Thompson has said recently, repeatedly, "I was wrong." No wiggling. No attempts to claim a false consistency. Just a manly admission of error, on a subject that at one point it was easy to be confused about.

So, forgive me if it sounds rude to my friends on this site, but get over yourselves. There's a war in Iraq, and an evil SOB running Iran, and a KGB brute running Russia, and there are statist, cheap-shot-artists running our own Congress who want to raise taxes, increase regulation, weaken our defenses, socialize medicine, and do terrible things to the judiciary. Start worrying about those real issues, and stop fighting about a bad but relatively unimportant policy choice that Congress and the president made six years ago.

Jeesh.

topics:
Taxes, Iraq, Iran, Russia