David Dreier (R-Calif.) explained, sort of. He said he voted against McCain-Feingold because “dictating who could give how much to whom” violated the First Amendment, but now he favors dictating to 527 contributors because McCain-Feingold is not violating the First Amendment enough: It is not “working as it was intended.” That is, it is not sufficiently restricting the money financing political advocacy. ~George Will, The Washington Post

Such is the fate of some Republicans in Congress who went from opposing a bill at least partly on principle to embracing its logic once McCain-Feingold became a signature “accomplishment” of the Bush administration. That is what Republicans’ commitment to the Constitution really amounts to, and it is yet another reason why the GOP has, in Will’s phrase, “earned defeat.”