Political Quotes

“I think one of the reasons people are disillusioned today and do not participate in the greatest democracy in the world is that they believe their voice does not count. They believe money talks. And listening to the debate we had on this floor, with the Senator from Kentucky on their side of the aisle leading that fight, I am sure they have concluded they are right. The Senator equates money with speech. It was, to me, one of the saddest debates I have ever heard around here. People do not vote, they do not participate, because they believe they do not count. Ordinary people, average people, they can't make the $1,000 contribution, or the $5,000, or the $10,000, or the $20,000 contribution, or, frankly, the $100,000 and $200,000 contributions of soft money that come into play here. I think it was a very sad situation when the Republicans, defying a majority of this Senate--and we had a majority vote for campaign finance reform--took that piece of legislation and threw it into the graveyard, along with all the other things our Democratic leader and our assistant Democratic leader have talked about--all the important things: The HMO reforms, the teachers, the policemen, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and a number of other issues that they have thrown into that graveyard, the last one being campaign finance reform.”