Bill Bennett: “We are about to finalize and pass on to the President a bill on campaign finance reform. Anyone who has followed the…”

“We are about to finalize and pass on to the President a bill on campaign finance reform. Anyone who has followed the proceedings during the years knows that I have been opposed to this since I first came into the Chamber back in 1993. I remember participating in an all-night filibuster against it, which Senator Mitchell forced us to go through. My hour, as I recall, was something between 1 and 2 in the morning because I didn't have enough seniority to have an hour that was more compatible with my sleeping patterns. I have done everything to see to it that this bill does not become law, for one very fundamental reason: I believe it is clearly unconstitutional. It violates both the spirit and the letter of the work of James Madison. I have quoted Madison on the floor, but I have been unsuccessful. It is clear to me now that the law is going to pass. It is, in all probability, going to be signed. I want to take a moment or two to outline, in the spirit of some prophecy, what I think is going to happen as a result of the bill. I have tried to be as objective as possible and set aside my deeply felt conviction that this bill violates what Madison was telling us in the tenth Federalist about appropriate government. The first thing that is very clear is that this bill will weaken--I won't go so far as to say ``destroy,'' as some others have said--both political parties.…”