Harry Reid: “when I came to the Senate about 11 years ago, one of the first things I did was come to the Senate floor and talk about…”

“when I came to the Senate about 11 years ago, one of the first things I did was come to the Senate floor and talk about the need for campaign finance reform. I thought it would come very quickly. I could not believe, with all the problems that occurred during that election cycle, including what happened in my election in the State of Nevada 11 years ago, we would not rush to reform the way we elect Senators and Members of the House of Representatives. The problems were replete, with the Federal Election Commission being really a toothless tiger. They had no money to enforce the rules and the laws that existed. Much to my chagrin and, frankly, much to my surprise, 11 years later we have done nothing, zero. In fact, things have even gotten worse. Why? Because the Supreme Court, among other things, declared that any money that goes to a State party cannot be regulated. So this last cycle, even though we had Federal law to the effect that there would be no corporate money in Federal elections since the early part of this century, the Supreme Court stood that on its head, and suddenly not only do we have the problems we have had with a myriad of people trying to skirt the law, now we have the fact that you can use corporate money in Federal elections. I think that is wrong. I think it is too bad that we have not done something. That is why I am here today to commend and applaud Senators Feingold and McCain for their courageous work on campaign finance reform.”