Chuck Schumer's Narcissism
May 19, 2010 05:19 PM UTC by John Stossel
Power tends to corrupt. Narcissism corrupts absolutely.
Ok, I mangled Lord Acton's phrase. But I feel compelled to do that because my ignorant and arrogant Senator keeps pushing freedom-killing legislation.
Last month he wanted to control airlines' prices. Now he will control political speech with his absurdly named Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act.
I bring up his narcissism because the last time I interviewed Schumer, he had called for government control of gasoline prices. At the time, gas retailed for more than $3/gallon, and the public was complaining. Schumer told me that, without government intervention, the price, because of Hurricane Katrina, was definitely going to $5/gallon. No argument gave him pause. But right as I was leaving, I asked him what he thought about that joke about him: “the most dangerous place to stand in Washington is between Chuck Schumer and a camera.”
For the first time, his face fell. I so wish the camera had still been rolling.
In today’s WSJ, some former Federal Election Commissioners call Schumer’s “Disclose” Act:
"severely burdensome to the right to engage in political speech and advocacy. … the FEC now has regulations for 33 types of contributions and speech and 71 different types of speakers…
Those regulatory burdens often fall hardest not on large-scale players in the political world but on spontaneous grass-roots movements, upstart, low-budget campaigns, and unwitting volunteers. Violating the law by engaging in forbidden political speech can land you in a federal prison, a very un-American notion. The Disclose Act exacerbates many of these problems and is a blatant attempt by its sponsors to do indirectly, through excessively onerous regulatory requirements, what the Supreme Court told Congress it cannot do directly—restrict political speech."
On my FBN show about free speech tomorrow, I’ll cover how existing political disclosure laws make some citizens say “I never will participate in politics again.” In a Massachusett's law, just the first sentence alone consisted of 262 words.
Schumer’s new rules would make the problem worse. His bill exempts unions, by the way. Surprise, surprise. I hope some in Congress listen to what a group of FEC commissioners say about Schumer’s Bill:
"It makes election law even more complex, more incomprehensible to ordinary voters, and more open to subjective enforcement by those seeking partisan gain."
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