Sam Gejdenson: “I yield myself 6 minutes. Madam Chairman, we are here today and we are frankly surprised, some of my Democratic…”

“I yield myself 6 minutes. Madam Chairman, we are here today and we are frankly surprised, some of my Democratic colleagues, because many of my Democratic colleagues said to me over and over again that this present leadership was shameless, that you could not shame them into doing the right thing. And here we are. We are wrong. At least we are having a debate. It took us a number of attempts, the election of some Members in the middle of the session that finally brought the signatures with virtually every Democrat and about a handful of Republicans signing a petition to bring the bills to the floor directly that finally got the Republican leadership, with editorial after editorial condemning them, to at least give us a chance to debate. In the theater they say, sometimes life imitates theater. Let us hope that this show, this attempt to appear to engage the campaign finance reform process, could lead to reality, because if we can pass a bill from this Chamber and send it back to the Senate, it may just put the pressure on the Senate to be able to break that filibuster.”