Dick Morris, the political strategist whom many credit with President Clinton's 1996 re-election, revealed his vision for a completely Internet-based democracy to an audience of 250 at the Institute of Politics' ARCO Forum last night.

Four years after a sex scandal forced Morris out of his job as Clinton's most trusted advisor, the controversial commentator-turned-democracy entrepreneur engaged political journalist Jacob Weisberg in a debate last night on the repercussions of the Internet for American democracy.

Morris--who is the president of a new company called Vote.com--argued that the Internet will soon usher in an era of direct democracy, the sort of democracy Thomas Jefferson dreamed of but found to be impossible.

"Now, it is completely practical," Morris said. "I believe [the Internet] will fundamentally change our system of government."

Vote.com is a website that asks Internet surfers for their opinions on political topics, then sends those opinions to elected officials.

With the eventual proliferation of similar e-democracy sites and the constant expansion of the Internet, Morris said, legislators will be all but removed from the process of making laws--reduced to rubber stamps on popular opinion.

Weisberg, who is the chief political correspondent for the online magazine Slate, argued that impracticality wasn't the only reason the founding fathers didn't choose direct democracy.

"Madison thought that popular democracy could lead to majority tyranny," Weisberg said.