Russ Feingold: “I thank them again. We need your help one more time now that it is coming back to this body. I am grateful. As we know…”

“I thank them again. We need your help one more time now that it is coming back to this body. I am grateful. As we know, in light of the papers and the comments this morning, early this morning the House of Representatives passed campaign finance reform. Thanks to the courageous leadership of Chris Shays, Marty Meehan, and Dick Gephardt, the House voted firmly in favor of reform. The House had to weather a great storm--a storm of lobbying that rained down from the opponents of reform. Frankly, they tried every trick in the book to kill the Shays-Meehan bill. They tried everything. Mr. President, you saw similar attempts in this House, and you helped us fight them every day. The proponents of reform tried to love Shays-Meehan to death, they tried to make Members swallow poison pill amendments, and when all else failed, they tried old-fashioned arm twisting to get supporters to back down. But reform supporters did not back down. Instead, they were courageous and they brought about a historic moment for campaign finance reform.”