As Senator McCain Seeks to Further Muzzle Political Speech, New Blog Tracks the Presidential Hopeful's Ongoing Refusal to Commit to Speech Limitations He Works to Impose on the American People

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2007

CFIF Launches McCain '$traight Talk?' Blog

As Senator McCain Seeks to Further Muzzle Political Speech, New Blog Tracks the Presidential Hopeful's Ongoing Refusal to Commit to Speech Limitations He Works to Impose on the American People

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Building on its efforts to encourage Senator John McCain to "talk straight" with the American people about whether he plans to campaign for President within the limitations of the Public Financing System, the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) today launched the new "$traight Talk?" Blog. 

"$traight Talk?" can be accessed at www.u-turnexpress.com.

"$traight Talk?" will be updated daily and offers the interactive ability for visitors to sign an online petition encouraging the Senator to "talk straight" with the American people on this issue. 

The new blog tracks Senator McCain's continued refusal to clearly state his intentions on whether he will campaign within the public financing system or abandon the limitations of that system in favor of his political ambitions. 

"The new '$traight Talk?' blog builds on our ongoing efforts and it will help to let Senator McCain know that the American people – particularly Conservatives – are fed up with his legislative efforts to stifle their First Amendment rights," said Timothy Lee, CFIF's Director of Legal and Public Affairs.

On January 25, CFIF sent a letter to Senator McCain asking him to clearly state his intentions on the public financing question.  One day later, the Senator's office announced that he plans to introduce legislation in the 110th Congress to "further clamp down on independent '527' groups."

"It's been more than a week since we initially asked Senator McCain to 'talk straight' with the American people on whether he plans to campaign for President within the public financing system or abandon that system in favor of more campaign dollars," said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella.  "His only response to date has been to publicly vow to push new legislation to muzzle even more political speech.  

"While Candidate McCain is out there trying to raise an estimated $500 million to support his 2008 bid for the White House, Senator McCain wants to silence '527' organizations – ironically groups he created through Congress's passage of the McCain-Feingold bill," said Mazzella.  "That is not 'straight talk,' it's the height of hypocrisy!  It would appear that for Senator McCain, what's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander," Mazzella concluded.

The Center for Individual Freedom (www.cfif.org) is a constitutional and free-market advocacy organization based in Alexandria, Virginia.  With more than 250,000 supporters and activists nationwide, CFIF has been a consistent advocate for preserving the free speech and association rights of all Americans.  CFIF was a plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case McConnell v. FEC, which challenged the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, commonly referred to as "McCain-Feingold."   More recently, CFIF won an important First Amendment victory before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which ruled that Louisiana's campaign finance law does not restrict or regulate independent political issue advertising.



[Posted February 1, 2007
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