Political Quotes

“this has been a great debate over Shays- Meehan, and I am proud to have played a role in advancing the issue to this critical point. I only wish I weren't the only Kentucky Member who fought for this bill. As we prepare to vote on Shays-Meehan/McCain-Feingold, it's important to remember Senator Thompson's investigation and report. The Thompson report identified the exact problems we're trying to reform here and the Shays-Meehan bill was offered up to solve these problems: Shays-Meehan outlaws foreign money once and for all! It outlaws Soft money--a loophole exploited by BOTH parties! It outlaws fundraising on government property! It reforms our campaign issue ad laws by reigning in sham issue ads! In fact, it is the only bill that addresses all these problems which were documented after the 1996 election. Now, although I'm the only Kentucky reformer in the House, maybe there have been some converts. The people of Kentucky care about this issue. I spoke at a campaign finance reform town meeting in Louisville about a month ago. Over 150 people packed a church on a Monday night, and stayed way beyond the scheduled time to express how badly they wanted to reform our out-of-control campaign finance system. It would be an outrage to have spent $8 million of Kentuckians and other Americans' tax money on these investigations and then not do anything to solve the problem. The problems of too much money in the political system are documented.…”