Political Quotes

“there are people of good faith, both Democrats and Republicans, who have some good idea about how to clean up the corrupting influence of big money in our campaign system. But every one of our Republican friends will have to admit that the only reason that those ideas are not being considered tonight is because the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrich), and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) do not want them considered. They know if we had a full and fair debate, as some of us have been demanding since January of 1995, that we would approve real reform and respond to the needs of the American people. So this year, the Republican leadership, unlike 1996 when they were satisfied with a mere knife in the back of campaign finance, this year they prefer an axe murder. They have chopped this bill up. They want the blood to splatter across this Chamber and let everyone share a little bit of the blame. The blame is clearly placed in one and only one place: Those who have chosen to deny a fair debate on Republican and Democratic proposals alike. They are the people who said they came here as revolutionaries. But when it comes to campaign finance, there they are only revolting. Some of us say they delayed too long on this, but I think we were wrong. They should have brought this bill up a day later, on April Fool's Day.”