24 Years' Experience and One Bonehead Move
I've been planning to blog on this since listening to John and Ken this afternoon, but Calblog beat me to the punch:
National Republican Congressional Committee (lead by David Dreier) files FEC complaint against John & Ken and KFI radio....
Rather than listen to a large part of their constituency on an important issue, the Republican Congressional Committee has become unhinged.
They have used a law to try and clearly muzzle free speech. If the complaint goes forward, then no radio talk show host is safe (Limbaugh, Hannity, Stern, etc.)
Lonewacko has also weighed in at Free Republic:
John & Ken charged with McCain-Feingold violation?
Obviously John & Ken themselves have expressed themselves with some detail on the radio, and with a little bit of info on the website:
Contact The National Republican Congressional Committee
Posted by The John and Ken Show @ 6:46 pm
John & Ken received a federal complaint filed by the Dreier Campaign and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) regarding Political Human Sacrifice! John & Ken are asking all our listeners to contact the NRCC and let them know what you think about the complaint.
Mailing Address
National Republican Congressional Committee
320 First Street, S.E
Washington, D.C. 20003
Phone Numbers
NRCC Main Number, (202) 479-7000
News Media Inquiries, (202) 479-7070
Campaign Assistance, (202) 479-7050
Information on Contributing, (202) 479-7030
Legal Compliance Questions, (202) 479-7069
Some of the Free Republic comments are interesting - there are some die-hard Republicans who are convinced that John & Ken deserve punishment for not supporting a Republican - but this comment in particular took the cake:
And their sheeple audience swallows this idiocy hook, line and sinker and want to throw out a good, powerful, conservative Republican Congressman, to elect an openly Lesbian Democrat, who is against the Iraqi war and against everything conservatives stand for.
Openly lesbian? So this poster (FairOpinion) thinks homosexuality is bad? I have some bad news for FairOpinion....
No word from Cynthia Matthews yet (who was apparently also named in the suit). I did hear a Clear Channel dude stating on the radio that the complaint was without merit.
Well, since this is my blog, I'm going to give myself the last word. The text below was originally posted in Calblog as a comment to another post. (If you follow the link, you'll also see my comments on Queen of Sky.)
In a way, you can't blame Dreier for thinking that Clear Channel was just another conservative organization (like a 527) that he could manipulate at will. Only problem is that Clear Channel isn't quite ready to officially become a subsidiary of the Republican Party, and even if they were, John & Ken would never stand for it and would probably rather be fired than be forced to shut up. So Dreier's attempt to silence John & Ken has ended up with yet another diatribe against Dreier from a high wattage radio station - and this one might get voters in his district to wonder whether he truly represents their interests.
[OE UPDATE 11/1/2004]
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