CORRESPONDENCE

...The same section of the Shays-Mee-han legislation would also ban nonprofit groups from "referring"—even in a non-judgmental, purely factual manner—"to one or more clearly identified candidates in a paid advertisement that is transmitted through radio or television within 60 calendar days preceding the date of an election of the candidate...

...He did intend to punch her, but because he was Fred Astaire in character he just couldn't slug a woman (or anyone else), even if it was "for her own good...

...SYDNEY HOFFMANN WASHINGTON, DC David Tell's editorial entitled "All the President's Backstabbers" perpetuates, inadvertently I think, one of the many errors that appear in the book Shadow...

...Yes, I call this an unprincipled smear...

...Perhaps Tell's decisiveness is the result of his apparent unfamiliarity with Shays-Meehan, which, contrary to his assertion, neither bans voter guides nor prohibits factual broadcasts about candidates by non-profits...

...I profoundly resent Tell's venting at my expense...

...Readers should now note Krasno's key phrase, however: "at the very least the courts ought to insist on some proof that a statute precludes groups of candidates from effectively competing as opposed to merely inconveniencing them...

...It is rather a stretch, however, to suggest, as political scientist Jonathan Krasno here does, that the mere existence of these endorsements renders unreasonable any decisive judgment that the bill is unconstitutional...

...I must respond, however, to the serious charges bantered about willy-nilly by Tell in the pages of your publication...

...I have never written, as Krasno mis-leadingly complains, that Shays-Mee-han would prohibit all voter guides or all factual broadcasts...

...I will not comment on the research, sourcing, or accuracy of Woodward's book, particularly with respect to the portrayal of my role in our vigorous defense of Monica S. Lewinsky...

...Fifty percent accuracy is scarcely acceptable...

...Circuit Court of Appeals in Shrink, the state of Missouri manifestly failed to fulfill this burden, which is why that court ruled as it did...

...Neither Comden nor Green is a composer...

...Under current law, tax-exempt public interest organizations like Common Cause and the National Right to Life Committee may freely praise or condemn politicians, all year long and in any forum, so long as they do not engage in "express advocacy"—that is, so long as they do not explicitly urge the victory or defeat of a particular candidate in a particular election...

...That would seem to be a matter of simple common sense—surely conservatives would protest if a proponent of legalizing drugs, like William F. Buckley or George Schultz, were made drug czar— yet Tell chooses to characterize the opposition to Smith as an unprincipled smear...

...The fact—and Tell doesn't bother to dispute it—is that Professor Smith is an avowed opponent of that law, the very law he would be charged with executing as an FEC commissioner...

...they are a team of lyric writers, but they never contributed a lyric, let alone a song, to an Astaire film...

...Tell objects to the "crude" opposition research done by the Brennan Center using quotes from Professor Smith's writings (though not so crude that he cites any factual errors) to reveal him as an enemy of the Federal Elections Campaign Act...

...Of the eight songwriters cited, four of them never wrote a song for an Astaire movie...

...This is not how the Constitution works...

...Before the Eighth U.S...

...Karnick's essay...

...Interestingly enough, Tell chose not to respond to the amicus brief signed by myself and 13 other political scientists urging the Court to allow legislatures a reasonable zone in which to act on campaign finance matters...

...In the case of $1,000 contribution limits, 25 years of their use in federal elections shows that as many candidates now as before are able to raise money and mount serious campaigns...

...Tell leads the cheers for this judicial activism...

...Today, by contrast, Krasno and his colleagues argue that this same scholarship— because it expresses misgivings about a Supreme Court decision that the Bren-nan Center itself is campaigning to overturn—makes Smith a "radical" and "unfit" for the FEC...

...Hence, Carefree ends with a smiling Ginger in white dress sporting a black eye as she marries the triumphant Astaire...

...Kern, in particular, with the scores for three Astaire pictures, including the Oscar-winning song "The Way You Look Tonight" from ^"wing Time, should not have been omitted...

...Smith is more than welcome to continue to challenge the law from the outside, but his hostility to it makes him a poor candidate to enforce it...

...But I will also expect him to enforce the laws he does not like, just as we can expect Bradley A. Smith to enforce the $1,000 federal campaign contribution limit...

...That's remarkable certitude (not to mention purple prose) about an issue that has scores of legal experts of all ideological stripes on both sides...

...But an alternate explanation is possible...

...It was the rightfully enraged rival portrayed by Ralph Bellamy who provided the honors, socking Ginger as his aim for Fred missed its target...

...One flaw in the overall excellence of that piece was the following sentence, which cannot escape rebuke: "The songs [in Astaire's films] scintillate, composed by George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Comden and Green...

...The closest they came was Dancing Lady, a 1933 Joan Crawford and Clark Gable picture in which Fred made a brief guest appearance, as himself, and in which a single Rodgers and Hart song, performed by Nelson Eddy, was included...

...Krasno declines to share with us any constitutional justification for these proposed restrictions...

...He has adequately summarized that document's contents in his letter, and I believe I have previously dealt with its broader argument...

...That may not make $1,000 limits the best of all possible policies, but the evidence from federal elections ought to be enough to convince judges to give legislators the freedom to make laws...

...What's reasonable, of course, is hard to define, but at the very least the courts ought to insist on some proof that a statute precludes groups of candidates from effectively competing as opposed to merely inconveniencing them...

...RICHARD E. MCCREA SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH...

...Karnick's superb article on Fred Astaire, it should be noted that Astaire's character in Carefree did not punch Ginger Rogers in the eye, even though it was critical to his love for her that she be knocked out of her hypnotic trance...

...His accusations are serious accusations, and they are wrong...

...Perhaps that is because there is none...

...PLATO CACHERIS WASHINGTON, DC CAMPAIGN FINANCE FEVER David Tell's complaint about the shameless zealotry of campaign finance reformers in general, and the Brennan Center for Justice in particular, is richly ironic given the almost unending stream of exaggerations and half-truths that follow in his editorial ("Shooting the Messenger," June 21...

...Tell begins with the Shays-Meehan bill, which he characterizes as "an almost unbelievable atrocity against the Constitution...

...Bradley Smith, the Capital University law professor and would-be FEC commissioner, is up next...

...He never even tried to talk to me...

...Correspondence SHADOW OF DOUBT David Tell's editorial regarding Bob Woodward's new book, Shadow,, pointed a nasty finger at me and declared that the "honor" of being "the book's most devastating violation of attorney-client confidentiality" was "reserved" for me ("All the President's Backstabbers," June 28...

...That is the sort of judicial restraint that conservatives like Tell are supposed to applaud...

...WILLIAM C. FORTH CHARLESTON, WV With regard to S.T...

...Judicial activism" had nothing to do with it...

...We invite you to confer with a reputable psychiatrist who we expect will confirm the non-existence of such a syndrome...

...Hoffmann (note that her name was misspelled in the book and, perforce, in your article) did not discuss with the author the "Clara Bow syndrome," since no such syndrome exists...

...JONATHAN KRASNO SENIOR POLICY ANALYST BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE NEW YORK, NY DAVID TELL RESPONDS: Indeed, "scores of legal experts" routinely flack for the Shays-Meehan bill...

...Krasno speculates that my own such judgment must be based on "unfamiliarity" with the actual text of the legislation...

...Thank you for publishing S.T...

...ASTAIRE .ASSISTANCE It's a great day whenever one comes upon a thoughtful appreciation of the artistry of Fred Astaire ("Top Hat," June 21...

...Second, I have never acted unethically in carrying out my responsibilities as an attorney...

...And, more immediately to the point, I will restrain myself from deriding Buckley as a kook—which is what the Brennan Center has done to Prof...

...Instead, I have accurately characterized these two provisions of the bill and have pointed out, in my typically purple prose, that if enacted they would represent an astounding abridgment of core speech rights under the First Amendment...

...In our editorial's discussion of the forthcoming Shrink case, I did not specifically address the amicus filing signed by Krasno, "interestingly enough," because I did not find it especially interesting...

...How, under such a stricture, Common Cause might still safely applaud or criticize an officeholder in a published voter guide has never been explained by the bill's proponents...

...Perhaps he and I are both perfectly familiar with House Resolution 417, and one of us is deliberately misrepresenting what it says...

...When a challenged statute impinges on central First Amendment freedoms—as, according to the Supreme Court, the $1,000 contribution limit does—the burden of "proof" falls on the government to justify its law, not on the victim to establish that he has been damaged enough to make Krasno feel sorry for him...

...Not three years ago, Brennan Center legal director Burt Neuborne endorsed Bradley Smith's academic writing as "excellent work" and "thoughtful scholarship that helps us to move to a better understanding of an immensely important national issue...

...Rodgers and Hart were a songwriting team of the first order, but they never wrote for Astaire...

...In the unlikely event that some future president nominates William F. Buckley to serve as drug czar, I will object on policy and political grounds...

...Smith, in an opposition-research hatchet job that does not become something other than "crude" simply because it contains no obvious misquotations...

...Lewinsky...

...Section 201(B) of the Shays-Meehan bill would replace this narrowly defined prohibition with an expansively vaporous ban on "expressing unmistakable and unambiguous support for or opposition to one or more clearly identified candidates when taken as a whole and with limited reference to external events...

...After Berlin, Porter, and the Gershwins, some of the other great composers and lyricists who aptly illustrate Karnick's point are Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer, and Frank Loesser...

...Tell reserves the majority of his ink, however, to parody a few arguments from amicus briefs in a case currently before the Supreme Court, N-ixon v. Shrink Government PAC, in which the Eighth Circuit ignored precedent by ruling $1,000 contribution limits unconstitutional...

...First, I both respect and like Ms...