Thread by @JewhadiTM

FEC’s Weintraub has long overstayed her welcome washex.am/2NPjasW

Why does Federal Election Commission Chairwoman @EllenLWeintraub still have her job?

Weintraub should leave her position both because she has served 11 years beyond the normally prescribed term...

... and, more importantly, because her repeated public comments give evidence of crusading, anti-Constitution attitudes. Her behavior is unbefitting someone in a job demanding dispassionate application of existing law.

The chairwoman’s most recent in a series of objectionable agitations came Aug. 30 on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes.

There, while conveniently ascribing to foreigners the idea that the presidential Electoral College creates results that are “not legitimate,” Weintraub gave what amounted to an official imprimatur to that idea.

Rather than defend our constitutional structure, she tacitly undermined its validity.

A single lapse in judgment like this might be forgivable. Alas, this wasn’t an isolated instance. Weintraub has a long history of intimating that her political views should supersede the Constitution she is sworn to serve and uphold.

In particular, Weintraub is no fan of the First Amendment. Rather than defend the free speech that is an essential part of free and fair elections, Weintraub has complained that the amendment has been “weaponized.”

She has also said the FEC should take it upon itself to “blunt the impact” of a Supreme Court decision protecting free speech rights, and is hosting an event this month aimed at targeting supposed “disinformation” online.

How abominable. The FEC’s role is to enforce election law, not to decide which speech is legitimate. “The FEC has no business policing the truth or accuracy of speech of any kind by American citizens on the internet,” said Lee Goodman, a former Republican FEC chairman.

To repeat, an FEC commissioner’s job is to enforce the Constitution and existing laws, and Supreme Court decisions pertaining to them, not to lobby to change them. In most respects, the job is an administrative-enforcement role, not a policy-making one.

By acting otherwise, Weintraub calls into question her own objectivity, meaning the real questions about lack of “legitimacy” should be aimed at her.