Mike Levin: “the Speaker has apparently said that it is Armageddon for the Republicans if Shays-Meehan passes. I think the real…”

“the Speaker has apparently said that it is Armageddon for the Republicans if Shays-Meehan passes. I think the real problem is that it would be Armageddon for them if they defeated it. So what we are seeing here are tactics to obscure the issue. Shays-Meehan does not nibble around the edges of soft money. It gets at the vice, and that is the unrestricted use of soft money for so-called issue ads. All it allows in a very circumscribed way, very circumscribed, is money for registration and get-out-the-vote. We will go into that later. Mr. Chairman, $40 million. It is absurd to talk that way. What Shays-Meehan tries to do is to preserve the democratic processes of registration and getting out the vote. What does the Armey amendment do? What it essentially says is no one can use even their own funds to help register people or get them out to vote, whether it is the NAACP or the NRA or anybody else. Nobody can use any of their own treasury monies. It is antidemocratic. What it is is a smokescreen, and we can see through it. The opposition cannot decide whether it wants to open the spigot altogether or shut it down altogether. You are moving from pillar to post when the solid position in the middle of this issue is Shays-Meehan. Vote down the Armey amendment and let us pass true reform. The day has come for Shays-Meehan, McCain-Feingold, and nothing is going to stop that effort.”