Ed Whitfield: “Well, all I would say is that, if the gentleman is talking about the hard money, of course, anybody can go down to the…”

“Well, all I would say is that, if the gentleman is talking about the hard money, of course, anybody can go down to the FEC and get a record and they will know who gave him money or anybody else in this Chamber and it is spelled out very explicitly. I think soft money is a little bit of a different issue. If it is independent expenditures, they are required to file their report with the FEC anyway. In issue advocacy, if it is a political committee, it is required to file a report. But my colleague is right, other groups do not have to file a report. And I think we can find some cases where the Court has said that is free speech and it is a little bit different than hard money and they do not have to go file all these reports, because they can make the argument that in filing all these reports it provides an obstacle for people engaging in the political process. I want to just touch on for a moment, the reason that I object to what my colleagues all have done on this voting record guide is that in paragraph 3 they basically lay out the language as set out in Buckley vs. Valeo, the so-called bright line, and if they had stopped after the word ``reject,'' I mean, I would not have had any problem with it myself. But the Court has repeatedly said that they do have to use these express words.”