NewsMax.com Wires
Sunday, July 08, 2001

The McCain-Feingold bill - which abolishes the unlimited political contributions known as "soft money" - passed the Senate in April, despite the opposition of President Bush. This week, the House is preparing to debate a nearly identical measure, the Shays-Meehan bill. But many GOP leaders opposed to McCain-Feingold are pushing an alternative bill in the lower chamber.

The Ney-Wynn bill would not ban soft money - the unlimited donations that unions, corporations and individuals can make to political parties for party building and get out the vote drives - but would limit donations to $75,000 to national parties. However, there would be no limits at the state or local level.

Supporters of Shays-Meehan say that if the House passes a different bill, there will have to be a conference of lawmakers from both chambers who would draft a compromise between the two bills. They fear that opponents of reform would use the opportunity kill or neuter the measure behind closed doors.

"If it gets to conference, this bill is dead," Rep Christopher Shays, R-Conn., a sponsor of the soft money ban, told ABC's This week.

He said that President Bush "has made it clear to our leadership he'll sign the bill. That's why our leadership is trying so hard to defeat it because they know he'll sign it."

Shays comments echo the sentiments of White House officials anonymously quoted by the Washington Post Sunday. "The administration does not plan to launch a major offensive when the House takes up a campaign finance bill … opting instead to let House GOP leaders steer the floor debate," the paper says.

The bill's other sponsor, Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Ma, told NBC's Meet the Press the Ney-Wynn bill was nothing more than a ploy to kill reform efforts.

"Everyone knows that public interest legislation dies in conference committee," Meehan said. "This is a game."

But Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., - an implacable foe of abolishing soft money - told ABC's This Week that Ney-Wynn was "a step in the right direction."

The senator criticized the Shays Meehan bill as the product of "of the two biggest special interests in America - The New York Times and The Washington Post."

He said that the bill was an attempt to muzzle issue advocacy by groups other than political parties, which he said would be prevented from having their say "when it really counts, in proximity to elections."

House Majority leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, rejected charges that the GOP leadership had been trying to intimidate House members with threats of withholding committee assignments. "The Republican leadership doesn't threaten our members. We talk to our members," he told Fox News Sunday. "We try to persuade them to our different point of view. But it's absolutely ludicrous to think that we would threaten any member with their committee assignment on this kind of a vote.

Armey criticized a letter sent by McCain to House GOP member that he had campaigned for in 2000: "I personally take a little umbrage at that. I've campaigned for members for now six, seven years in a row, without ever going back to a member and saying, 'Hey, because I showed up in your district during your campaign, you owe me a vote.'"

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., dismissed the idea on CBS' Face the Nation that he had tried to intimidate House GOPers: "I'm really kind of stunned that someone would be surprised that I would write a letter to people that I campaigned for and with asking them to support what was one of the themes of the campaigned I engaged with them," he said.

"There was no threats or intimidation. I'm just asking them to support it. I hope they will. And, you know, I think it was not inappropriate - in fact, I think it was very appropriate to remind them that we did discuss this issue and how important it is to me and to the country.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.