I wrote a few days ago about lawyer/author/thought leader Lawrence Lessig's conversation with David Gergen at Harvard Law School last week, and thought I'd just clean out my notebook a bit, 'cause this stuff is interesting and also 'cause I love the traffic that #lessig brings.

Lessig and Gergen were both at the 1980 GOP convention. Gergen, sure; he's trod the halls of presidential politics for decades. But Larry Lessig, well-known liberal, was the youngest member of Pennsylvania's delegation to the event in Detroit. "You wouldn't talk to me," Lessig told Gergen last week.

Lessig said he was scheduled to do a reading and signing at a Washington bookstore until the shopkeepers read what Lessig said about teacher unions and promptly disinvited him. So much for the broad intellectual bastion that bookstores are said to represent.

Lessig isn't much exorcised at all about the Citizens United case, which has come to be known as the case in which that the Supreme Court solidified the notion that corporations are people. His proposal to amend the Constitution has three parts: 1) Congressional campaigns must be funded publicly. 2) Congress can limit but not ban political contributions. 3) Congress can limit but not ban independent spending on Congressional campaigns. In response to questioner who inquired about Citizens United, he said, "If you want to add that as a fourth, fine, but it'd be a classic, hopeless, self-defeating, leftist" sort of thing to do.

Lessig's idea is that all taxpayers would receive a $50 voucher back from the federal government that they could give to the Congressional candidate of their choices. Candidates could also accept no more than $100 from any person.

Lessig's appearance was part of his publicity tour for "Republic Lost."