This is absolutely true. Speaking for myself, I've felt politically powerless my entire life before discovering blogs. Living in a red state with a conservative newspaper, I couldn't even get my viewpoints printed as letters to the editor.
With blogs, average citizens do have a chance to be heard, especially given that politicians such as yourself are clearly reading what we have to say. That's great and that is democracy in action. Your efforts to protect this are most appreciated.
Keep up the good work!
so i just want to toss in a "thank you" to you on this thread, as i'm sure you or your staff will be monitoring it. when you stood up and railed against the (un)PATRIOT(ic) act, you spoke for people all across the country. and that's the thing about blogs - every campaign can potentially be a national campaign now. sure, the GOP has been doing that with direct mail for ages, but this format is much more personal and has the potential to offer instant feedback.
but back to the issue... i am concerned about how you (or the FEC) would define a "legitimate" blogger. my definition would include someone who is truly independent and not paid by any campaign. however, you will find that some right-wing bloggers are actual campaign operatives pretending to be independent. my concern is that there must be transparency, but i don't believe that further government regulation is the solution to that particular problem.
i'm also concerned about the impact of further regulation on the 527s. it's my understanding that a 501c is a "partisan" entity. do you see any obstacles to 527s changing their status to 501c? do you object to such action?
senator, i hope you will return to this thread when you have the time and try to answer some of these questions. obviously we feel this is an important issue, and as long as you're honest and forthright with us we should be able to hash this out.
thank you again for taking the time to write up this post. i already admired you for your great work in congress, but you've definitely gone up a few notches in my book thanks to your willingness to engage us.
