John Kerry: “I simply express on behalf of all of us I think who had an anticipation of an opportunity to bring a number of…”

“I simply express on behalf of all of us I think who had an anticipation of an opportunity to bring a number of amendments that this is a setback for the Senate and it is clearly a setback for all those in the country who thought the Senate could approach the issue of reform responsibly. When we talk about filling the tree here, for a lot of people who listen to these debates and don't know what that means, under the rules of the Senate, we are given an opportunity to be able to bring up an amendment according to the rules. But according to the rules, the majority leader has the opportunity of right of recognition to take up all of the options that the rules allow in order to bring up amendments. By doing that, he can choose to deny any other opportunity for an amendment. That is precisely what the majority leader has chosen to do here. I think what he has asked for is a long process of delay. He has initiated gridlock in the U.S. Senate again, solely to protect a certain group of narrow vested interests represented in this campaign finance debate. It is very, very clear as of today, there are a majority of the U.S. Senate prepared to vote for campaign finance reform.”