As I’ve said before, the “Dems” don’t really want this (just a few of the less intelligent ones) – this is simply the Fair and unbalanced battle cry – “The Sky Is Falling” – misdirection – don’t fall for it. The Fairness Doctrine isn’t taken seriously enough to ever make it into committee, let alone into a bill, or for that matter hit an FCC docket.

And, if in some weird chance that it did come to pass – and somehow was enforceable – would it matter? Is there enough media consumption under FCC regulation to make a difference? – especially if we had some sort of “balancing” act?

It will never happen. Rush and his buddies just fan the flames every so often. The socialist are coming! They want Grandma DEAD! No one wants government run health care! They want to take away your Medicare!

The NY Times also reported, earlier this month, or at the end of February, that the GOP leaders went to Wall Street to get campaign contributions to the party, and were somewhat rebuffed. Then Mitch McConnell and Boehner visited Wall Street, and received commitments for GOP campaign contributions. Want to speculate on what they traded for the dollars? Watch whether ANY Republican will vote for the bill reported out of Dodd’s committee. And the Democrats who heavily rely on Wall Street contributions will also vote against it. Cynicism? It’s too mild a term. “Disgust” is much closer to the truth.

We can reduce the disgust by passing legislation that forbids any Representative or Senator from being a lobbyist, directly or indirectly, for 10 years after he/she leaves office and legislation that prevents votes or appointments by one legislator (the Bunning/Shelby ploy) or by less than a majority of the Senate; and a constitutional amendment that: (i) increases the terms of Representatives to 4 years, (ii) caps Senators’ terms at 12 or 18 years, (iii) creates an independent panel to establish congressional districts, so that Democrats are not always re-elected to the House from Democrat-gerrymandered districts and Republicans from Republican-gerrymandered districts or the same legislators automatically winning their primaries and elections in their districts, and (iv) makes the McCain-Feingold provisions constitutional.

But the legislators creating the cynicism and disgust are not interested in any of the above, because the mantra of Congress is “Don’t vote against your own self-interest; just tell the public that they don’t want it and don’t support those changes, because if you say that long enough and loud enough it brainwashes a majority of voters.”