John Tierney: “the moment of truth is upon us. It is showdown time today in the Rules Committee on campaign finance reform. Last…”

“the moment of truth is upon us. It is showdown time today in the Rules Committee on campaign finance reform. Last November, the Speaker of this House promised the House a very fair bipartisan vote on campaign finance reform. The question is, will the Committee on Rules live up to that promise when it meets today? Certainly, Mr. Speaker, the deck against passing reform is stacked. The bill that the Republicans are putting forth today is in no way reform. It is in fact deform. We will not have a chance to vote on real reform nor will we have a chance to vote on anything but a half-baked concoction of campaign finance deforms that are going to be offered to us in a so-called Thomas bill. Just this week the chairman of the Rules Committee indicated that he wants to allow a vote on a substantive campaign finance bill in addition to the Thomas bill. I urge the Speaker, I urge the Rules Committee, to fulfill the promises that have been made last fall. Give us a fair bipartisan vote on campaign finance reform.”