Sen. Jim DeMint announced that he will force a vote next week on a bill that prevents the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.

The South Carolina Republican’s bill, the Broadcaster Freedom Act, is co-sponsored by John Thune, R-S.D., and 27 others and will be offered as an amendment to the D.C. Voting Rights bill.

[snip]

Sen. DeMint stated: “I’m glad President Obama finally confirmed his opposition to the Fairness Doctrine, which attacks the right of free speech on talk radio, but many Democrats in Congress are still pushing it.

“With the support of the new administration, now is the time for Congress to take a stand against this kind of censorship. I intend to seek a vote on this amendment next week so every senator is on record: Do you support free speech or do you want to silence voices you disagree with?”

Senator DeMint’s having fun here, but in a good cause: watching the Democrats try to square the circle between their legislative wing saying one thing and their executive saying another should be highly entertaining.  Really, guys, it’s much easier to pick a stand first and just stick to it.  Easier, more moral, and – once you actually commit to doing it, instead of just talking about doing it – it pays all sorts of dividends in the long run.

Guess we’ll see next week who really does run the Democratic Party, huh?  – Because after the way Congress rolled the White House on the debt bill by porking it up so, Obama could use a win, you know what I mean?

Moe Lane

“As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated,” White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

But then, so did his stand against FISA.
And for public financing of elections.
And against the war in Iraq.
And for transparency in lawmaking.
And against torture.

I can keep going, but you get the drift. There is what we’d call a history, here.

Crossposted at RedState.

But a majority expects Congress to try to pass it anyway:

47% Oppose Fairness Doctrine, But 51% Think Congress Likely To Bring It Back

Just 38% of U.S. voters think that the government should require all radio stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary.

Forty-seven percent (47%) oppose government-imposed political balance on radio stations, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure which course is better.

These findings are a dramatic nine-point drop-off in support for the Fairness Doctrine from a survey last August when 47% said the government should require all radio and television stations to offer balanced political commentary.

Hot Air this morning linked to an interview with David Axelrod where he declined to make talk of suppressing free speech via “the Fairness Doctrine” an instant non-story. On the one hand, I would like to think that the current administration is not so foolish as to think that trying to institute a program that will instantly galvanize every Red-represented-by-Blue district in the country (it’ll galvanize the regular Red districts, too, but that’s another issue) is a good idea, but apparently just over half of the country disagrees with me on that. On the other hand, they probably have a point. On the gripping hand, it’s entirely likely that the President will have effectively no say in the deliberations: the last three weeks have demonstrated that Obama has no meaningful control over Congress at all. Speaker Pelosi probably needs to have this fight in order to throw her liberal base a bone, and carrying a President who doesn’t bring anything to the table will be a burden she’ll be unwilling to bear…

Moe Lane

PS: “What about Obama’s personal charisma and ability to move a crowd?” I hear you ask. Well, I don’t know: why don’t you go call Rep. Aaron Schock (R, IL-18) and ask him about how scared we should be about that?

PPS: In fact, keep an eye on this guy.

Crossposted to RedState.