Russ Feingold: “in the brief time I have remaining, I want to quickly respond to some of the remarks of the Senator from Kentucky. First…”

“in the brief time I have remaining, I want to quickly respond to some of the remarks of the Senator from Kentucky. First of all, the suggestion that the arguments on this side have relied on a caricature of the views of the nominee is simply false. We have been very cautious in the debate to simply rely on Professor Smith's actual words from his voluminous writings, and the Senator from Kentucky in no instance has denied that we accurately quoted Professor Smith. These are his views. There has been no distortion and no caricaturing of his views. Second, the Senator denies the nominee's views on the campaign finance law will affect his ability to discharge his duties as an FEC Commissioner. Of course, I do not believe that people involved in the enforcement of laws have to accept the premise of every single law they are charged to enforce, but this nominee rejects essentially the entire campaign finance law of our country, from the notion dating back to 1907, that is still supposed to be good law today, that a corporation should not be able to give contributions in connection with federal elections, to the notion that labor unions should not be able to make such contributions, according to a 1947 law, to his rejection of the fundamental post-Watergate laws restricting the amounts that individuals can give candidates and parties that we are supposed to live under today. Professor Smith is essentially a campaign finance law anarchist.”