Many of you may already know that the Federal Election Commission has been looking into making rules that could result in the regulation of political speech on blogs.

Blogger websites of all persuasions are of course incensed at the idea.

Over that Tech Central Station, FEC Commission Brad Smith gave an interview, and seems to have come out opposed to regulation of political speech on the internet. And if there is to be regulation, blogs should enjoy the same exemption as the big-money media sites will enjoy.

And so I’m pleased to see a prominent Republican advocate for unfettered speech. It’s kinda refreshing to hear moderate words about a freedom issue.

Thought you might enjoy this entry, applauding a Republican for a change, when I noticed him taking a public stance in favor of individual liberty.

We usually hear more about Republicans and their anti-personal liberty positions, because their most activist political base supports them in order to restrict personal liberty and impose theocratic principles on society.

TCS: Tech Central Station - An End To ‘Everybody’s Press’?

. . . We will have changed the presumption from the idea that the Internet is not regulated to one that it is regulated. And once we have made the presumption that it’s going to be regulated, it’s only a matter of time before people will find things that they think therefore ought to be regulated.

. . . That’s the way that the political system works here and we have now set up the presumption that when things come up that people are unhappy about, government should regulate them.

I go back to a First Amendment perspective, that the First Amendment was there for us to keep government out of this. Now we are past the stage in which we can say that the courts will strike down all campaign finance regulation. But we really need to ask ourselves: is there not one area of American political life that can be unregulated? Is it absolutely required to regulate every area? And if there is one area that could be unregulated, one would think it might be the Internet, given that it’s one area where the little guy — the average citizen — really can get in there and compete with the big, well-financed interests.