If Mr. Lessig is elected as a Democratic Representative from the bay area, it could easily transform his pet issues into partisan ones and give every Republican talk show host in the country an excuse to revile him (now if he were elected as a Republican...).
Sorry to say, it's easier to be a nonpartisan advocate as a private citizen than it is as an elected official.
TWiL regular John Palfrey announced a great idea last week while we were recording the forthcoming episode: a Facebook group drafting Professor Lessig for a recently vacated Congressional seat. Says John, "It’s high time we had our first true Free Culture candidate for public office." The Facebook group is about to hit 2,000 members, and there’s an official Web site as well (get your badges here). Seems appropriate in an election season so unusually filled with promise for needed change.
For his part, Professor Lessig isn’t ruling anything out, telling Ars Technica, "At this point, I’m not really able to say anything. I’ve been kind of stunned by the push of many, and am away with my family this weekend to think things through." More from Ars Technica, TechCrunch, and Slashdot.
[Update, 2/20/08 6:51 a.m.] TWiL #12 went up yesterday.
[Update, 2/20/08 6:55 a.m.] Via Jonathan Zittrain, a new site from Professor Lessig, lessig08.org: "I have decided I want to give as much energy as I can to the Change Congress movement. I will decide in the next week or so whether it makes sense to advance that movement by running for Congress."
