-Caveat Lector- http://www.truthout.com/02.14A.GOP.Defeated.htm
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! New York Times | February 13, 2002 G.O.P. Leaders Defeated in Bids to Derail Campaign Finance Bill By ALISON MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 ‹ A scramble to defeat a broad overhaul of the campaign finance law continued in the House today as Republican leaders were defeated in two attempts to fracture the coalition of Democrats and Republicans who want to ban unlimited contributions to the political parties. Republican leaders tried to scuttle the Shays-Meehan bill to ban soft money by proposing alternative measures. The first challenge to the bill was a measure offered by the House majority leader, Dick Armey of Texas, that went down by 249 to 179 early this afternoon. The Armey measure would have been even stricter than the Shays-Meehan bill, but its approval would have necessitated new negotiations with the Senate and thus stalled passage of final legislation. Later in the afternoon, the House rejected by 377 to 53 a measure offered by Representative Boy Ney, Republican of Ohio, that sought to resurrect a stronger version of the Shays-Meehan bill that passed in 1998. A series of further challenges was expected throughout the afternoon and into the evening before a final vote on the measure sponsored by Representatives Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, and Martin T. Meehan, Democrat of Massachusetts. Although the House leaders have long opposed a soft money ban, their new approach was seen as a way to give undecided Republican moderates political cover to look as if they are taking a stand against big money even as they help kill campaign finance overhaul. If the House passes alternative legislation to the Shays-Meehan bill, campaign finance overhaul would likely be dead for the year. At the same time, in a concession of their own designed to nail down some final votes, Mr. Shays and Mr. Meehan have changed their bill so it would not take effect until Nov. 6, the day after the hotly contested elections in which control of the House and Senate are at stake. Their opponents have charged them with insincerity. "It's a bit hypocritical," Representative John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said on Tuesday. "If they really believe it is the right thing to do, why not do it now?" The frenzied maneuvering promised to produce a topsy-turvy and confusing House debate with each side promoting itself as purer than the other. Passage of a more stringent bill would throw the House into compromise negotiations with the Senate, which last year passed a bill nearly identical to the Shays-Meehan one. That would give the opponents another chance to stop or weaken the legislation. "I hope they don't think their constituents are so stupid," Mr. Shays said of the tactic, calling it cynical. The nerve center of opposition to the campaign finance effort was the Capitol suites of the three senior Republican leaders. Lobbyists for an array of interest groups swarmed Capitol Hill backing one bill or another or seeking change, working sometimes in odd-couple alliances. Their united purpose was to defeat Shays-Meehan, or some of the bill's provisions. Backers of the Shays-Meehan bill found new fuel for their fight in the Senate, where Kenneth L. Lay, the former chairman of the Enron Corporation, whom some are calling the poster boy for changing the system of large contributions, cited his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify on Tuesday. Mr. Meehan said Enron would help him pick up some surprise votes. "Enron's millions of dollars in soft money contributions has tarnished all of us in the public eye, and we're tired of it," he said on Tuesday. Mr. Ney, the Ohio Republican, called it "shameful" for his opponents to use Enron to propel their cause. The two parties were working hard against each other, and lobbyists for an array of interest groups including the National Rifle Association, organized labor and Common Cause swarmed Capitol Hill, working sometimes in left-right alliances. Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the House minority leader, made calls seeking new Democratic votes for the Shays-Meehan bill, and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority whip, had her vote-counting organization getting Democratic votes. Most Democrats are expected to support the Shays-Meehan bill along with 20 Republicans. That makes another 20 or so Republican moderates the swing voters. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who has warned Republicans that they could lose control of the House without unlimited donations, held strategy meetings late Tuesday as his aides made calls. Mr. DeLay of Texas, the majority whip, was deploying his powerful organization to work on undecided Republicans, and his aides gave out talking points describing the Shays-Meehan bill's "critical flaws." Several Republican lawmakers acknowledged that they had an uphill task because the House has twice approved a version of the Shays-Meehan bill, in 1998 and 1999, and members' votes were on record. "This is going to be tough," said John P. Feehery, a spokesman for Mr. Hastert. The supporters of the Shays-Meehan bill were more optimistic but unwilling to declare victory. "This is the hardest bill to pass that there is," Mr. Gephardt said, "because it's a bill that contains material that affects every member's election and re-election." The Republican National Committee, closely tied to the White House, was working against the bill. But to the annoyance of some House Republican leaders, President Bush stood above the fray. "The president is not lobbying, no," Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said on Tuesday. The Shays-Meehan legislation bans large unlimited donations to the political parties, which rose to nearly $500 million in the last election. But in a bow to the concerns of black Democrats who fear that the soft money ban will hinder drives to get out the vote, the bill allows individuals to make up to $10,000 contributions to state political parties for get-out-the-vote and registration efforts. The legislation also prohibits outside groups from running advocacy advertisements that are really thinly disguised campaign advertisements 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. A rival bill sponsored by Mr. Ney and Representative Albert R. Wynn, Democrat of Maryland, would allow individuals to donate up to $75,000 a year to each of the six national political party committees. It would allow unlimited donations to the state political parties. Both sides were also drawing up amendments. Republicans were looking for ways to fracture the fragile Shays-Meehan coalition and were considering such ideas as striking out the $10,000 donations to state parties dear to black Democrats, or restoring an immediate effective date to the soft money ban. That too might scare Democrats who desperately want to win control of the House in November. They were also looking at offering a slightly different version of the Shays-Meehan bill from a few years ago. Mr. Shays and Mr. Meehan said they would put up three amendments to test the sentiment of the House on several issues. One would parallel action taken by the Senate last year and allow individual donors to give House candidates $2,000 per election in regulated donations, instead of the current $1,000 limit. Another would allow the House to decide whether to go ahead with provisions forcing television stations to charge the lowest possible rate for political advertising. 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