"The Incumbent Protection Act "

If you're not familiar with the "Incumbent Protection Act," it's how Rush, not so lovingly, refers to the McCain-Feingold law. You know the one; "there's too much money in politics and we're all being corrupted by it so we need to curtail the amount of money spent on elections"...yada yada yada...The attempt to stifle free speech via the free flow of money apparently failed because we saw the emergence of the famous "527" groups like MoveOn.com and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (fortunately!).

The McCains and Feingolds are still unhappy campers, maybe because they saw the incredible influence free speech actually can have on a campaign, especially if you try to stifle it. There's a War on Speech going on in Congress and the folks at TCS are covering it:

Last week, a bill was introduced in the Senate that would force 527s to register with the Federal Election Commission and restrict the groups' ability to raise and spend money.

The bill enjoys the support of Trent Lott, who had been one of 41 senators to vote against McCain-Feingold. Now, however, he's decided that any money given by wealthy individuals is "sewer money."

And why is this money so dirty suddenly?

"It was an unintended consequence of McCain-Feingold. Instead of going to the parties, rich people are putting money into these 527s in the dark of night," Lott told the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss.

In other words, some of those rich people might be trying to throw out incumbents.

McCain is even more blatant about the incumbent-protection angle. As The Washington Times reported last week, "McCain said lawmakers should support the bill out of self-interest, because it would prevent a rich activist from trying to defeat an incumbent by directing money into a political race through a 527 organization."

*Note to electorate: guns don't kill, and money doesn't corrupt. People kill, and willing politicians allow themselves to be corrupted!