Political Quotes

“Yesterday, we made significant progress on the ethics and lobbying reform bill. This will go a long way toward helping to reduce cynicism about this body. We began debate on the bill. The Republican leader and I offered a strong substitute amendment that made numerous important improvements to the underlying bill. And then I offered an amendment to strengthen the bill even further. Then we have had a number of other Senators come to the floor and make statements, offer amendments. And I think that is certainly appropriate. Mr. President, I do emphasize this morning this is not a campaign finance reform bill. My personal feeling is campaign finance reform needs a very close going over. We need to hold extensive hearings on this issue. There are a lot of very complicated issues dealing with campaign finance reform, some of which deal with not only the Rules Committee but the Finance Committee because there are tax implications. I respectfully submit to my colleagues--both in the majority and minority--this is not the place to do rifle shots on campaign finance reform. I was a real cynic in the past about doing anything with, for example, 527s. I now think we have to take a look at a lot of these campaign finance issues, including 527s. But it has to be done in a thoughtful, probative way. I hope we can do that. This is not a campaign finance bill.”