Political Quotes

“I oppose the Ney substitute because I believe it and the amendment thereto to follow will kill our crusade against soft money, and our crusade against soft money has to win if our democracy is to prevail. There are those who say that soft money, corporate money, labor money is really about philosophy. It is not about corruption. It is about how these organizations support the parties of their choice with their dollars. For the last 2 months I have spent most of my time investigating the Enron scandal. Just to give an example of what Enron did to further its philosophy, in March of 2000 it gave $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee. The next month in April it gave $75,000 to the Republican National Committee. In May it gave $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee. In June it gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee. And the day before that, it had given $50,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Committee. Mr. Chairman, this is not about philosophy, this is about access and influence; and it corrupts our process. If a Member of this body went to Enron and called them on the phone and said, I would like a check for $50,000 or cash for $50,000, that Member would go to jail for corruption as he or she should. If Enron Corporation gave $50,000 to one of our congressional campaigns, we would go to jail, as we should, because that is corrupt.”