so now bush wants to stop all issue advertisement. it's actually kind of bizarre when you think about it. bush is not proposing that he take the tax exemption away from 527s (as tax-exempt issue advertisers are known), but rather he wants them "to stop airing political ads." in other words, bush is calling for only the official political parties and political candidates to be allowed to engage in political speech.
bush's statement comes as the "swift boat veterans for truth"'s credibility is sinking like a rock and john mccain and others have demanding that bush condemn the swift boat advertisements. rather than specifically condemning what SBVfT is saying, he is attacking the right of SBVfT or other "shadowy groups" to say anything at all. (oddly by "shadowy groups," bush includes organizations like moveon.org, even though, unlike SBVfT, where moveon.org gets its funding from is public knowledge).
not only is bush revealing a profound ignorance of the concept of free speech, but he's also completely missing the point of the objection to the SBVfT advertisement. the problem with SBVfT is not that they are running commercials, but rather: (1) that they are lying in them, and (2) that there are some suspicions that the bush administration is sponsoring their ad campaign (this is a problem because that would be illegal).
significantly, bush is not alleging that moveon.org is lying in any of their commercials or that moveon.org is secretly being funded by the kerry campaign. in other words, bush is not addressing any of the objection to the SBVfT commercial at all. sure, his proposal to ban all issue advertisement would take the SBVfT ad off the air, but it would also bar virtually any organization from publicly taking a political position during a political campaign.
