The intersection where free speech and campaign finance "reform" meet is a dangerous place.

Every effort to control the influence of money on the political process runs into competing, and often legitimate, free-speech concerns.

The latest crunch involves growing use of the Internet to solicit money and advance political ideas: Should the ever-more complicated system of campaign finance regulation be brought to bear on the Internet, where, as the saying goes, information wants to be and ought to be free?

That's the question being considered by the U.S. House Administration Committee, which is looking into proposed legislation that would variously either include or exclude Internet communications from Federal Elections Commission rules and regulations.

This is uncharted territory best left to the Elections Commission.

Exempting political activity on the Internet from any and all campaign financing regulations would set a dangerous precedent.

The issue here is not regulation or control of speech, on the Internet or in any other format. Rather, it is who is paying for it, when it occurs in a political context.

The public has readily accepted that there should be limits on how much people can give to candidates and whether or not corporations and unions should be allowed to give.

(Federal law prohibits corporate and union contributions; Hawai'i law allows them. Both jurisdictions place limits on the amount individuals can give in any election cycle).

Innovators are constantly finding ways around the laws — but that is no reason to abandon them.

The Internet is an increasingly important political tool (look at what Howard Dean accomplished in the last presidential election and the growing influence of partisan Web sites such as MoveOn.Org).

Contribution limits now applicable to "analog" campaigns also should apply to digital campaigns.

This means the Elections Commission should then have the responsibility to come up with rules that protect free speech yet subject Internet political sites, bloggers and others in cyberspace to the same set of controls governing other forms of political speech.