Core of McCain-Feingold Untouched

Today's Supreme Court decision on the millionaire's amendment left the core of the McCain-Feingold law intact, and that's good news for everyone who cares about stamping out corruption in government. The most important part of McCain-Feingold has always been the ban on soft money, a ban the Supreme Court upheld in 2003. That ban did one very simple, very important thing: It ended unlimited contributions to the national parties and prohibited federal officials and candidates from raising those contributions for federal or state parties. Before McCain-Feingold, both parties raked in million dollar contributions from tobacco companies, oil companies, labor unions, and all kinds of wealthy donors. What's worse, those donations were often raised by members of Congress themselves, the men and women who voted on interests important to those wealthy donors every day. It was a system of legalized bribery that had no place in our democracy, and thanks to McCain-Feingold, these soft money contributions to the parties are over.

Today's decision was about a different, much smaller provision of the bill, known as the millionaire's amendment. This amendment, which was added to the bill on the Senate floor, allowed candidates facing rich, self-funded opponents to increase the amount of money they could raise from their wealthy donors by up to six times. Senator McCain and I actually opposed this amendment when it first came to a vote during the Senate's big debate over McCain-Feingold in 2001. Changes were later made to fix some of the problems with the amendment. As I said at the time, while I ultimately voted for it in the spirit of compromise, I didn't believe it was essential to reform.

The ruling on this minor provision aside, I'm very pleased that the essential reform of McCain-Feingold remains the law of the land. We should never go back to the days when members of Congress -- whom the American people elect to represent their interests -- were asking for huge, unlimited contributions from wealthy interests to fuel the political parties. McCain-Feingold has ushered in a new era in fundraising, with a huge increase in the participation of small donors. And the parties, which many argued had to have soft money to survive, have actually thrived since McCain-Feingold became law. I'm proud of what McCain-Feingold has achieved, and I'm very pleased that today's ruling does nothing to impact the soft money ban that is at the core of this landmark law.

Follow Sen. Russ Feingold on Twitter: www.twitter.com/U.S. Senator fr

Comments

[bIgTeX]

Wow! check out this John McCain story about the Dewey Foundation!
http://www.dawsontimes.com/living/5_18/presidential-candidate-mccain-embraces-the-victory.shtml

[Dap]

Dear Senator Feingold,

I just wanted to drop in on you and say thank you for all your exceptional efforts. That said, Can you look into what's going on with this House and Senate bill (H,Con Res 362 and S. Res. 580) Thanks.
Agape..

Where have all the Congressional conscieces gone? by Coleen Rowley

Congress is set to pass the latest AIPAC-initiated legislation (H. Con. Res. 362 and S. Res. 580 laying the groundwork for setting up a naval blockade of Iran) that would constitute a de facto authorization of war on Iran.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/where-have-all-the-congre_b_109448.html

[joebhed]

Thanks to you and to Coleen Rowley for asking these righteous questions.

As incredible as it may seem, we are preparing to declare war on Iran, and not even the Huffington Post has a feature article, you know, like with the headlines this deserves.

The question for democrats among us is this:
Is Obama going to fight to PREVENT the next war, a la what real leadership qualities would call for?

Or is he sucking up to the AIPAC, not wanting to be seen as soft on terrorism, line of the hordes of the other democratic and republican followers of the state of Israel?

Obama, Obama, the change-ist.
We hardly knew ya..

[scooperss]

First, thank you for your FISA work.
Two, don't ever become like your fellow Congress critters. PLEASE!

Third, call it what you want, but it's called buying yourself a Congressman where I come from and I'm ashamed of mine.

[NABNYC]

I look forward to the day when Russ Feingold is president of the United States. The radical change brought about by the use of the internet to raise money now actually makes that a possibility. For the first time in a long time, we can imagine a person who is not the wealthiest, not sponsored or owned by the elite, yet nonetheless supported by so many citizens with small donations that the right person could get elected.

Sen. Feingold is, as always, in the forefront of the most critical issues in this country. I think we need radical changes in the law to make it illegal for any politician to accept anything or any promise from anyone. Live on the paycheck or go home. Anyone who violates that should be sent to prison. It's so insane that we actually have leaders in both parties telling us they are not selling their votes to corporate donors, then we see the telecom buy immunity from Congress for a few million dollars, and we see the politicians get richer. Sen. Feingold and a few noted others the exception.

I look forward to the day when we get realistic laws that throw politicians into prison for taking money from anyone, which is how it should be. Until then, I'm grateful for McCain-Feingold for starting the discussion.

[BUBBY]

Russ makes me proud to be a CheeseHead.

[bgregs]

Lucky Bastard! I envy you! I've got Obama, but I just got a bit disappointed in him (for the first time since he became my Senator!)

[drblack]

Senator Feingold is the BEST of all Congress members.
I hope more politicians will start to support and protect American Freedom the way Senator Feingold has.
Thank you Senator Feingold. Tell your fellow members of Congress that the American people are fed up with the destruction of Freedom and the unaccountable and secret governmnet.
We will keep Senator Feingold and vote out many of the other members of Congress.

[guajiro]

Senator Feingold, in light of the stalwart people's friend you have become, I salute you. I once thought less of you and I don't know why. But, I have been noticing these last several years that you have a backbone of iron when it comes to issues you care about, and some of those issues have been issues the people care about; like campaign finance reform. There have been other issues in which you have backed up the people's position in a hard-nosed way and we appreciate it and commend you. Thanks for all you do.

[marinemomof3]

I think you are great!

Any interest in exchanging a Feingold for a Feinstein??
Would the people in Wisconsin notice?

We could sure use another DEMOCRAT here in Cali.

Thank You for all you do Senator Feingold.

[onceler]

Good work on FISA, for sure, but the McCain-Feingold Act, I can't say I'm much of a fan of it. Its not much better than what was there in the first place, and still allows for vastly corrupt elections at every level of government.

[Dogvane]

Good work on FISA. You're the best.

[zizyphus]

I am afraid is it will continue, just more underground. What I want to know is, why Russ Feingold, one of my very favorites, won't get behind impeachment.

[cynara]

Hot off the presses: Sen Russ Feingold stopped the FISA legislation that would have given immunity to the telephone companies. Thank you Senator! The American people and the US constitution are grateful for your service! Keep up the good work.

[gotalife]

Thank you Senator.

[Clairvaux]

Senator,

Would you consider moving to North Carolina?

Or better yet, could we clone you?

[KMREIN]

Sorry, you can't have one of WI's state treasures! We'll have to work on the cloning option.

[soupson52]

SENATOR FEINGOLD:

I so admire you. An honest man doing the people's work. I recognize that in the right atmosphere you would be able to lead a quest to "outlaw" or at least make transparent, the 527s.
Thank you for your dedication and integrity.

[frappe]

Dear Sen. Feingold,

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to extend by heartfelt thanks and appreciation for your exemplary and honorable efforts on behalf of citizens throughout these United States. The state of Wisconsin is truly fortunate to have you as their Senator. And Americans everywhere benefit by your single-minded dedication to upholding and defending principles that extend well beyond your state's borders. If only there were more like you in Congress, the USA would be a much stronger, healthier, and more resilient country, I am sure.

Allowing unlimited contributions from individuals and special interests is, most definitely, a form of "legalized bribery" and has absolutely no place in our democracy. However, there is still much work that needs to be done as I'm sure you are well aware, as many in congress, if not most, still rely on the "generosity" of special interests to finance their campaigns. These same congressmen often seem to subjugate themselves to these very same interests, even when they run counter to the greater interests of their larger constituencies. In other words, serious conflicts of interest still remain and must be dealt with.

The sad truth is that too often, policies are enacted that benefit the few at the expense of the many. Universal health insurance is just one glaring example or policy issue that comes to mind that never seems to advance beyond election year debates, despite the intense, overwhelming public need for low cost, universal health care coverage.

[Whipsmart13]

Sen. Feingold

As far as corruption in the senate, what do you think of "VIP" Mortgage deals for Senators? Do you think it is just "ok" for your fellow senators to claim ignorance or to make a donation to a charity in order to wash things away?

In our world, everyone is not treated like a U.S. senator. In our world, when someone says we are getting the "VIP" treatment, we know that someone wants something or is getting something. In our world, we watch our pennies and sweat each month to make the big mortgage payment in an era of high energy prices due to poor plans (Republican and Democrat) the last 20 years? How many "VIP" deals have these energy companies (both Big Oil, Big Farm, Big Gas) given to your comrades to put us in the mess that we are in?