Fritz Hollings, Wrong Again

Fritz Hollings had a distinguished career in the United States Senate. On campaign finance, he is all wrong, all the time. This piece in The Washington Post's contains this jaw-dropping argument: "The court held in that decision 30 years ago that the limit on campaign spending constituted a limit on free speech and was thus unconstitutional. On the other hand, limiting the speech of a contributor was deemed constitutional. In this decision, the court frustrated the intent of Congress. We wanted to limit both."

Fritz Hollings, what part of the First Amendment bothers you so?

Limits on donations have made it easy for millionaires to win seats in the Senate. But the fund-raising problem in politics isn't the amount of money, it's the amount of time legislators spend raising money. And that time is increased every time donation limts are imposed. A more radical idea would be to lift donation limits, make Congress work Monday through Friday and require 24-hour disclosure of all donations.