Political Quotes

“I am here to applaud the Committee on Rules for giving us the opportunity today on the floor of this House to have the first, and given the way the Republican leadership runs this place, perhaps the only vote in this new millennium on genuine campaign finance reform. We are going to do that today through the motion to recommit, because what has happened in American politics is more distasteful than ever. It made a little fun of it last year in Roll Call referring to the 527 loophole airbus. It is a giant loophole that has been committed in our campaign finance laws, and now it is being used to hammer people into giving huge contributions to political organizations to conduct character assassination of people with hate ads on the airwaves throughout this country. One can hammer a person to give $100,000 or a million dollars after they think they have gotten what they call fair treatment in this House. What they can tell that person they are hammering is that no one will be able to trace the money because they are going to run it through something called a 527, a giant loophole in the campaign finance laws. Some have referred to this loophole as the political equivalent of a Swiss bank account, and we have already begun to see how these 527 organizations operate. They operate in secret. Common Cause has referred to them as stealth PACs. One leading reformer in this country has said, this is the latest manifestation of corruption in American politics.”