Russ Feingold: “the President sent a nomination to the Senate that anyone who cares about the campaign finance laws in this country will…”

“the President sent a nomination to the Senate that anyone who cares about the campaign finance laws in this country will find very troubling. I speak of the nomination of Bradley Smith to a 6-year term on the Federal Election Commission. Mr. Smith's views on the federal election laws, as expressed in law review articles, interviews, op-eds, speeches over the past half decade are disturbing, to say the least. He should not be on the regulatory body charged with enforcing and interpreting those very laws. Today I am placing a very public hold on this nomination. I will object to its consideration on the floor and I ask all of my colleagues who support campaign finance reform to oppose this nomination. In a 1997 opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Smith wrote the following: When a law is in need of continual revision to close a series of ever-changing 'loopholes,' it is probably the law, and not the people, that is in error. The most sensible reform is a simple one: repeal of the Federal Election Campaign Act. That's right, the man who the President has just nominated to serve on the Federal Election Commission believes the Federal campaign laws should be repealed.”