You’ve got to feel for FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith.

Called a “First Amendment Hero” by Professor Bainbridge, Smith has been targeted for character assassination by those who seek to control political speech. Bainbridge writes of Smith:

As a law professor before he joined the FEC, Smith wrote many law review articles condemning campaign finance regulation. As a result, when Smith was nominated to the FEC, McCain and Feingold orchestrated a massive smear campaign against him. Since then, even while faithfully enforcing the statutes his Commission oversees, Smith has consistently been on the side of free speech.

So don’t blame the messenger!

The attacks on Commissioner Smith-especially from the Campaign Legal Center-have been both vicious and personal. In effect, they’ve labled the Commissioner a liar for remarks made in a C-Net interview that’s sparked one of biggest blogswarms on both the left and right to date.

Captain Ed has some interesting information on the Campaign Legal Center:

One of the organizations pushing for the BCRA (McCain-Feingold) is the Campaign Legal Center, headed by Trevor Potter and fronted by PR spokesperson Mark Glaze, who ran Al Gore’s recount efforts in Florida.

And Democracy Project has another interesting tidbit on Potter:

The Campaign Legal Center, headed by Trevor Potter, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and general counsel to Senator McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, is a non-profit organization which is playing a pivotal role in the political and legal battle over campaign finance. The Center is a member of the legal team defending the future of campaign finance reform in the wake of challenges to the recent campaign reform law passed by Congress.

So here we have a group headed up by McCain’s former campaign lawyer and an Al Gore PR flack asking the blogosphere to “Remain calm…All is well…”

Why do I feel like the canary who just got an invitation to go out to dinner with the cat?

Commissioner Smith has responded to this attack on his character and credibility in an email. His main points:

1. The Campaign Legal Center press release basically argues that only paid ads will be covered for internet regulation. In fact, the FEC has already viewed paid internet ads as subject to regulation under FECA.

2. The court’s opinion that directs the FEC to regulate the internet does not limit the Commission to dealing with online ads.

3. Reps. Shays and Meehan, represented by Potter, also successfully argued that the FEC could not exclude unpaid broadcast ads from the reach of the law.

4. Smith adds that the internet is up for grabs, and there is no reason that republication of campaign emails or posts, or advocacy of candidates on blogs, or links to candidates web sites would be exempt from FEC regulation.

The entire sphere owes Commissioner Smith a debt of gratitude for both his advocacy of the First Amendment and his warnings about this latest McCain-Feingold outrage.