Pete Domenici: “So 38 Senators had the guts to vote on the real issue, and the real issue is that the Constitution of the United States…”

“So 38 Senators had the guts to vote on the real issue, and the real issue is that the Constitution of the United States has a great big amendment that guarantees freedom of speech. I did not use to understand how the right of freedom of speech was related to campaign expenditures until I read a few of the United States Supreme Court decisions. And I am very pleased that they got the message. The Court understood when it first ruled that you could not limit an individual who wanted to spend his own money on a campaign. You could not limit the amount of money he spent because that money was his freedom of speech. That is what he used it for. And I equate it here on the floor, and ask the question, what do we apply, in the largest and greatest sense, freedom of speech to in America? We apply it to the media of America. We have freedom of speech, but really when you look at it, it is the freedom of the newspapers, the radios, the televisions, the editorial writers, the column writers, all of whom have this absolute freedom to get involved in our campaigns. That is why the Supreme Court said that spending money on your own campaign is exercising your freedom of speech.”