John Doolittle: “make no mistake about it, at the heart of this debate on campaign reform is our right as American citizens to freely…”

“make no mistake about it, at the heart of this debate on campaign reform is our right as American citizens to freely engage in political speech, a right which is guaranteed to us under the first amendment of the Constitution. Throughout the course of this debate the big government campaign reformers will be trying to tell us that unconstitutional government regulations are needed because they believe money is evil and that it is corrupting our political system. These people look at America as a seething cauldron of unseemly interests who debase the political process. Many colleagues, on the other hand, take the approach that James Madison did. James Madison, the author of the first amendment, understood that America would be a cauldron of special interests, but special interests, in Madison's view, would be people who would be guaranteed a right to have some influence. Madison anticipated, expected and deemed it necessary that in a republic people must have influence. The campaign finance regulators would like us to believe political giving is inherently corrupt. But, in fact, participating in the political process is not merely desirable, it is guaranteed by the Constitution. The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that the Constitution allows political parties or any group of Americans to spend unlimited amounts on political speech.”