Word: reformer
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When John McCain got the Senate to pass his campaign-finance reform bill last April, he seemed to have cleared the last high hurdle to getting it to George W. Bush's desk. The Senate had rejected the measure three times in four years. The House was friendlier, having passed its version of campaign reform in '98 and '99 by comfortable margins--the last time with 54 Republicans aboard. All McCain's allies in the House have to do now is pass a measure similar to the Senate's. That way Senators can simply vote to accept the version...
Simple enough? Not quite. This week the House takes up campaign-finance reform, and passing it has got a lot more complicated. "I wouldn't say we have the votes yet," admits Democratic Representative Martin Meehan, who's sponsoring the House version with Republican Congressman Christopher Shays...
...Senate to pass a ban on unregulated "soft-money" contributions to the national parties, which totaled $487 million for the 2000 election, McCain and his Democratic co-sponsor, Russell Feingold, had to accept amendments that have caused a near mutiny among reform supporters in the House. Liberal members of Congress object to a provision doubling the maximum amount of regulated "hard-money" contributions a donor can make to a candidate from $1,000 to $2,000. Public-interest groups such as Common Cause threatened to bolt over another provision that allows state parties to keep collecting soft money, arguing...
McCain, meanwhile, has sent letters to 24 G.O.P. members of Congress he stumped for in the last election, reminding them that he expects them to live up to promises he says they made to support campaign reform. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt has been herding recalcitrant Democrats. Forget your old fear that a soft-money ban hurts Democrats as much as Republicans, he tells them. Democrats caught up with Republicans in raising soft money because Bill Clinton used the White House to vacuum in millions. But W., an even better fund raiser than Bill, now occupies that real estate...
...legitimacy over the Communist Party. Released five years ago, Ren can now crusade against Beijing's current attempt to be host to the 2008 Summer Games. But he isn't, and not because he's afraid. Instead he is hopeful that the Games will empower leaders who favor political reform. "China needs to improve its human rights," he says, "Opposing the Olympics won't help reach that goal...