On the recordSeptember 26, 1997
The answer to that from my perspective, as the perspective from the Senator from Kentucky is, of course, it is not. Of course, it is highly undesirable. It will atomize the political system. It will make Members far more free than they have been even in the past from any loyalty as a party, and thus reduce the ability of a Congress or of any other body to reach coherent decisions, but, more importantly than that, will reduce the ability to communicate a coherent set of political ideas to the people of the United States in connection with election campaigns. That is why it is so tremendously undesirable. Even if I am correct that it is constitutional to create such limits, they certainly violate the spirit of the first amendment which is designed to create a field in which the widest range of political ideas can be communicated in the broadest possible fashion.
Source
govinfo.gov
