Rick Allen: “I would say the ``travesty,'' ``hoax,'' ``charade,'' are all appropriate words when, in the name of reform, we have a…”

“I would say the ``travesty,'' ``hoax,'' ``charade,'' are all appropriate words when, in the name of reform, we have a bill which allows an individual who used to be able to give $25,000 to an array of candidates to give $75,000 to candidates. Or when someone used to be able to give $20,000 to the national parties, to be able to give $60,000 to the national parties. That is not reform. That is an explosion of money. Whereas some increase might be appropriate to offset the loss of soft money, because we want our political parties to still be participants in this process, we do not want the campaigns dominated entirely by outside groups, by running issue ads still. That is ridiculous. That does not make any sense. The gentleman from Arkansas was just saying there are other good bills out there, and I want to spend just a few minutes on what is called McCain-Feingold 2, because that is a bill that I think really ought to come up for a vote in this House. It is very close, with just a couple of adjustments it is almost the same bill that passed in the Senate, got 51 votes in the Senate, was not allowed to pass, but it got 51 votes in the Senate. Let me say a few words about that. The McCain-Feingold 2, which is really the Shays-Meehan bill here in the House, eliminates Federal soft money as well as State soft money that influences the Federal election. It has a real soft money ban. Second, it reforms this whole area of issue advocacy.”