Arlen Specter: “On the issue of soft money and where it has gone, there is a very strong point that if the definition of issue advocacy…”

“On the issue of soft money and where it has gone, there is a very strong point that if the definition of issue advocacy, issue commercials, contrasted with advocacy commercials, if that distinction was sharpened up--my colleague and I discussed this at some length with Attorney General Reno when she appeared before the regular judiciary oversight hearing back on April 30 and the questions were propounded to her about these commercials on both sides, Republican and Democrat-- Republican commercials extolling the virtues of Senator Dole, and Democrat commercials extolling the virtues of President Clinton, and knocking each other in reverse. Those were somehow viewed as being issue commercials as opposed to advocacy commercials. The question I take up with my colleague at this point, which is a corollary to the soft money, is whether the soft money would really have so much effect, and whether we couldn't contain it by congressional enactment on the question of constitutionality. I would be interested in the answer to two questions of the Senator, the distinguished lawyer Senator Thompson.”