John Doolittle: “I draw Members' attention to an article in today's Washington Post, not by a Republican or a conservative, by Robert J.…”

“I draw Members' attention to an article in today's Washington Post, not by a Republican or a conservative, by Robert J. Samuelson, entitled ``It Is Not Reform, It Is Deception.'' That is all this Shays-Meehan bill and the McCain-Feingold bill are about. I encourage Members to read it because it is not from a Republican perspective, and yet it makes all the Republican arguments. With all of the demagoguery we are going to hear today, I hope Members will read this because in one little summary, Members will get the essence of what this is all about. Mr. Chairman, the disastrous present law that we have was given to us by the same liberals who are now bringing to us an updated version in the Shays-Meehan bill. This law was rammed through in 1974 by liberal Democrats in the far left of the think tanks to try and take advantage of Republicans through the law and making it harder for them to campaign. It worked. It took us 20 additional years before we won the House of Representatives as a result of that law. If this disastrous bill passes today unamended, I suspect we will have another 20 years in the trenches before we ever come back. Why is it right to abuse the law to skew it in favor of one party and against another? It is terribly wrong. As Samuelson says, it is not reform, it is deception.”