William Bryan: “we hear that opponents of McCain-Feingold have argued for the need to codify the Beck decision. Senators Feingold and…”

“we hear that opponents of McCain-Feingold have argued for the need to codify the Beck decision. Senators Feingold and McCain have done just that by including a provision that expressly codifies the Supreme Court decision. Now, however, there is an effort to seek a new amendment, a new provision. The pending amendment is clever. It indeed may rise to the level of being ingenious. But its sole purpose and function is to kill the cause of campaign finance reform. The majority leader himself was quoted in the Wall Street Journal in September this past month as saying: I set it up [referring to the amendment] so they will be filibustering me. This is a political tactic that is designed to thwart, to prevent campaign finance reform. It clearly indicates that this is not a serious debate about reforming our campaign laws. Perhaps the Washington Post editorial of October 1, 1997, sets the record in the proper context. And I quote: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, having magnanimously allowed campaign finance reform legislation to come to the floor, now proposes to kill it with an amendment affecting the use of labor union dues for political purposes. I regret that the amendment in that form was offered.…”