John Tierney: “The perception of the American public is clear. They are upset about what is going on in politics and they have the…”

“The perception of the American public is clear. They are upset about what is going on in politics and they have the clear perception, whether or not it is reality with respect to each and every Member here. The perception is that money is a corrupting influence and that money is having an impact, so much so that when Bill Moyers spoke recently to a group, he did an interesting exercise. He had an entire group stand up and asked a third to sit down and identified that that third of the group represented those people who do not bother to register anymore. Then he had a second third sit down and identified that that was the group of people in this country that while they may bother to register, they do not bother to go out and vote. So the remaining one-third of people represented just that small portion of people in this country that actually are voting now and, in effect, are electing their representatives. Whatever the reasons are that the other two-thirds are not voting, one clear reason that people express as one reason is that they have the definite perception that money is adversely impacting this system.”