A wrong that needs to be righted in U.S. political campaigns is ’...

Foundation Wed. night, he said “the Founding Fathers would turn over in their graves if they knew their precious First Amendment was being used” to justify existing campaign practices and fund- raising. Today, he said, “the No. 1 qualification to run for office in the world’s greatest democracy has become in the television age not the ability to govern but the ability to raise money.” First Amendment “doesn’t give you the right to holler ‘fire’ in a crowded theater,” he said. “Why does it give you the right to holler ‘money’ in a Buddhist temple?” Presidents now “frequently spend more time at fund-raisers than they do at the business of running the government,” Hewitt complained. Politicians can’t get elected without “amassing a [money] war chest and you can’t amass a war chest without being beholden to people who want something from you.” Contributions from anybody doing business with govt. should be banned, he said, “because any way you cut it, that is bribery.” Solution isn’t to give candidates free time, he said: “Just give them news time when they do something newsworthy. That is our only obligation.” If TV were to lose the estimated $1 billion candidates paid for air time in 2000 (CD March 7 p8), Hewitt suggested TV industry start taking “hard liquor commercials” as possible replacement: “Jim Beam and Jack Daniels did less harm to America than [Democratic strategist] Dick Morris and [former White House attorney] Jack Quinn.”