Slipping an Internet Grab in Under Cover of Wall Street Theater

It's quickly becoming the signature move of Obama and the Congressional Democrats: slip an unrelated power grab into law under cover of a larger power grab. Most recently, over the Internet:

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported on another little Easter egg in a bill cruising through Congress that would normally have followed Nancy Pelosi's policy of discovery ex post facto. Democrats have pushed hard to get the financial-regulation reform bill unstuck in the Senate, mainly playing on class-warfare themes in painting the GOP as the party of eeeeeeevil Wall Street robber barons. However, the House version of the bill contains provisions that would put the Federal Trade Commission in position to start issuing rules on Internet transactions that would not only slow down business growth but also have no relevance at all to the financial collapse that prompted the bill

As Ed Morrissey goes on to state, it's also becoming a signature move to hand off legislative functions to regulatory, administrative offices — as with the EPA's claim of authority to regulate carbon dioxide. In summary, elected officials are granting increasing power to unelected bureaucrats, and they're doing so by sneaking legislation through the process in the shadow of larger topics. Self-governance, we hardly knew ye.