John Tierney: “I note that what the Speaker is talking about in terms of unlimited campaign contributions is, in essence, as one…”

“I note that what the Speaker is talking about in terms of unlimited campaign contributions is, in essence, as one editorial says, trying to paste on the label of reform without the content. I think that finally the majority party and the Speaker in particular are starting to hear the voices of America coming forward and saying they will not tolerate inaction on campaign finance reform, and clearly, that majority party, led by its Speaker, do not want to have any real meaningful campaign finance reform, so they are doing just that, trying to paste on the label of reform without the content by saying that they want to reform it by lifting all the rules, and have people have unlimited individual contributions, and then in the next step, they go on to ban so-called soft money. Madam Speaker, soft money was there just to beat the limits. So if we remove the limits on contributions, we do not need the soft money. In effect, we just open it right up and you can buy any vote you want. It is just unlimited money coming in and basically, again, trying to disarm one party, leaving a party that traditionally gets enormous amounts of money from very wealthy interests to have their day. Editorials have already started to see through this ploy. I think the American people have seen through it long before.”