During the Republican primaries, former State Representative Art Pope contributed heavily to a group opposing Representative Richard Morgan. Morgan lost but, now, according to the News and Observer, he’s launching a ‘Legal Fund.’ Morgan says he’s afraid left unchecked, “Pope will destroy the integrity of the North Carolina State House.”

We’ve had the Lottery scandal, the Optometrist scandal, the Video Poker scandal, Michael Decker’s bribery conviction, and four guilty verdicts in court. The Democrats have already ‘destroyed the House’s integrity’ without Mr. Pope’s help.

According to Representative Morgan, Mr. Pope also is a “threat to our liberties.” Naturally, Representative Morgan is unhappy about Mr. Pope’s decision to spend several hundred thousand dollars criticizing him during the primaries. But Mr. Pope isn’t threatening our liberties – he’s exercising one of them – freedom of speech. And Morgan is exercising the same liberty with his ‘Legal Defense Fund.’

Richard Morgan has every right to argue that what Mr. Pope said about him in the primary was wrong. But, instead, he is arguing how Pope said it is wrong. He is trying to limit Mr. Pope’s freedom of speech – which in Morgan’s eyes may be protecting our liberties but, in the broader sense, has the opposite effect.

It boils down to this: Do we want Mr. Pope – and others like him – to have their say? Or do we want to stop them whenever they criticize an elected official we support?