Dale Bumpers: “One of the strongest objections I have had to the Levin proposal is not that lobbyists are prohibited from making any…”

“One of the strongest objections I have had to the Levin proposal is not that lobbyists are prohibited from making any kind of a gift or contribution to a Senator, but because all other gifts are limited to $20. I must say I do not understand an arbitrary figure of $20. The principal objection I have had to both the Feingold-Wellstone and Levin proposals is the one that was voiced by the Senator from Kentucky, and that is: I think you are laying minefields where innocent Senators are going to get in big-time trouble, inadvertently and innocently. What if a gift came into my office in a box and I ignored it, or did not think about it? One day, I say to somebody, 'What is this gift?' They say, 'I don't know.' And you open it up and it is a Rolex watch. I send it back, but maybe 31 to 60 days has gone by. And let us just assume that you have a political adversary and some staff member tells him about it. The first thing you know, you have a complaint lodged with the Ethics Committee because you did not return the gift within 30 days.”