Steven Holt: “I hope she does not feel powerless now as she sees the thousands of people who joined her on the steps of the Capitol…”

“I hope she does not feel powerless now as she sees the thousands of people who joined her on the steps of the Capitol, who are joining her on her web site, who are joining her at every stage here. It is interesting, many of them carried signs and chanted, ``Granny D speaks for me.'' It is perhaps ironic that a rather diminutive 90-year-old has such a powerful voice. In fact, when she stood up to the microphone she did have a powerful voice, but an even more powerful voice in her actions. She spoke about this cynicism that people have. I hasten to say that our colleagues here are honorable people, almost all driven by real altruism. But there is a perception out there in the country... a perception that anything that comes out of Congress is determined by the wealthy special interests. We need to take action on that. I really commend the gentleman for doing this. Some States are doing some things. In New Jersey, we have public financing of the gubernatorial campaigns. It works well. It is not a perfect solution. The soft money ban that we have been talking about this evening is not a complete solution, but it certainly is a good first step.”