Sam Gejdenson: “we are in a process, trying to avoid a straightforward discussion of campaign finance reform. I know there are some…”

“we are in a process, trying to avoid a straightforward discussion of campaign finance reform. I know there are some people that believe in a commission, and commissions are not the worst things in the world, but we all get paid a salary and we are elected here to make decisions about legislation, and if we believe in representative government, we are here to represent our constituents to try to address one of the fundamental issues gnawing at the confidence of how their government operates by the American people. Now, 157 weeks ago the Speaker of the House shook hands with the President of the United States and says, we are going to do campaign finance reform. Mr. Chairman, 157 weeks of dodging and weaving to try to avoid a vote. And then we had one day where we had this sham set up that all the papers basically wrote off as a sham, and then we came up with as convoluted a process as we could possibly come up with, and here we are today. We are passing rule upon rule, we are doing a section of debate today and a section tomorrow. Some people may validly believe in a commission, but a vote on a commission today is a vote to end the process of stepping forward with campaign finance reform. I think Shays-Meehan, or McCain-Feingold is wholly inadequate. It does not have spending limits; it does not address some of the fundamental issues that I think are important. But in a legislative process, we either go forward or we kill the process and stop dead in our tracks.”