Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, for those that may be following this debate and wonder at times what 'poison pill' and some of the references actually mean, I want to point to the motives of the Shays-Meehan effort. That is really to try to remove the influence that special interests have on Federal election campaigns. I also want to point out, with this amendment being an example, that we are not killing everything that comes up. If it is germane, if it is special interest, if it is about money in Federal elections, and it is something that is going in the same direction of real reform, we are willing to work with the authors of amendments such as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) and this is a great example. Mr. Chairman, I commend the gentleman for his work and his persistence on this legitimate issue of foreign money coming into the American Federal political process. There is some domestic money that we think is also egregious and we are trying to put some reasonable limitations on soft money and the proliferation of these outside interests.”