Word: feingolds
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...vanguard of this conceptualization of soft money is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Two years ago, the ACLU opposed a forerunner of the McCain-Feingold bill on the grounds that banning soft money would "chill free expression." These same dire warnings were echoed in a New York Times op-ed piece last week where the authors (one of whom is general counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union) sought to prove that banning soft money is tantamount to "prohibit[ing] speech...
...which are necessary to support a closure of the soft money loophole. To be effective, the government cannot simply restrict the amount of soft money which can be donated; it also must ensure that organizations do not turn around and "execute" soft money spending on their own. The McCain-Feingold bill would solve this problem by banning the private purchase of radio or television commercials if those spots specifically endorse a candidate by name in the two months before a general election...
...place to curtail independent political advocacy. Unfortunately, a better way to solve the problem of soft money has yet to present itself, and the power of those funds is too damaging to our political system to ignore. Chilling effects on the free expenditure of money or no, the McCain-Feingold must be passed. Let the free speech advocates battle those specific provisions out in the courts: in the meantime, the bill can serve to stem the flow of soft money until a better solution (and one that does not interfere with individual advocacy) can be drawn...
...roadblocks thrown up by Republicans would keep it from coming to a vote. "But this time we're playing with real bullets," says G.O.P. Senator Chuck Hagel, who is sponsoring a rival bill. Senate majority leader Trent Lott has agreed to let McCain and his Democratic co-sponsor, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, have their vote within two weeks. The House is poised to pass a similar measure, which means Congress could finally pass a bill that cuts off hundreds of millions of campaign dollars...
McCain and Feingold have been barnstorming the states of Senators whose votes are in doubt. Last Friday, while Bush was in Lafayette, La., pressuring Breaux and Landrieu to support his tax cut, McCain and Feingold were in New Orleans pressuring them to support campaign-finance reform. Public-interest groups, hoping to hold the Louisianans and others to past promises, are dredging up newsclips in which the lawmakers are quoted as saying they will vote for McCain's bill. To switch now "would truly be the height of hypocrisy," says Matt Keller, Common Cause's deputy legislative director. But even...