Don't hang up on freedom, buddy.

As America runs the gauntlet of primary elections, many American voters have been grimacing at the incessant phone calls featuring pre-recorded messages from politicians, their spouses and supporters that peak in the weeks and days before the polls open.

But to a consortium of political consultants who are responsible for many millions of such calls, those messages are the sound of democracy itself. And they're trying to convince lawmakers -- better known as their clients -- not to put them out of business.

The robocalling tactic has become so popular, the last round of federal elections made 2006 the so-called "Year of the Robocall." But they are so annoying, federal and state lawmakers immediately began trying to rein them in with new laws. One bipartisan Senate bill would require political robocallers to abide by the National Do-Not-Call List, like other telemarketers.

The calling firms' reaction? You'd think the sponsors, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Arlen Specter, R-Penn., wanted to roll up the Constitution and smoke it.

"[I]t's bad for democracy," one Democratic consultant told Politics magazine recently.  His company is a member of the American Association of Political Consultants, which is pushing to stop the Feinstein-Specter bill, and defend "our clients' First Amendment right to communicate with voters."

The group favors milder rules, such as restrictions on what time of day they can dispatch the automated calls -- which is also part of the Feinstein-Specter bill.  The group also supports a mandatory "key-press" option in all calls which would allow recipients to opt out of future calls from the campaign, the magazine reported.  AAPC has even set up a fund -- "the First Amendment Legal Defense Fund" -- to support its efforts.

Feinstein and Specter did not immediately return calls for comment.