John Doolittle: “I rarely agree with my hometown newspaper. It is one of the most partisan Democrat newspapers in the United States…”

“I rarely agree with my hometown newspaper. It is one of the most partisan Democrat newspapers in the United States, known as the Sacramento Bee. But they did write an editorial which had many points of agreement. I have put it out in a Dear Colleague. The editorial was yesterday. It is entitled ``Wrong-headed Reform: Passage of Bad Campaign Regulations Is No Victory.'' I just thought I would share this with the Members. This is not coming from the Republican side or the conservative side, but this is coming from a very liberal Democrat-oriented newspaper. I think they make some very, very valid points. The points they make, I believe, are as valid against the substitute of the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) as they are against the Shays-Meehan bill and other bills of that type. They are speaking of the Shays-Meehan bill. They say, ``It centers on two big wrong-headed reforms: Prohibiting national political parties from collecting or using soft money contributions, and outlawing independent political advertising that identifies candidates within 60 days of a Federal election. That means the law would prohibit issue campaigning at precisely the time when voters are finally interested in listening, hardly consistent with free speech.”