Republicans push campaign finance bill to hamstring Democratic groups

GOP Pushes Campaign Finance Legislation
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
19 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - House Republicans made a last-minute attempt Saturday to limit individual political donations to independent organizations. It was a move aimed at hampering Democratic-aligned groups that were powerful in 2004 and could threaten GOP candidates next year.

As Congress rushed to finish for the year, Republican leaders met privately and sought to attach the campaign finance legislation — which has idled in the House for months — to a defense bill that was ready for final passage.

They stalled when Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., refused to sign off on the defense bill as long as it contained the campaign finance measure. Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, the top Democrat on Warner's committee, also objected, as did his counterpart in the House, Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo.

House leaders weren't budging, throwing into question the fate of the defense bill, which includes a ban on the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects in U.S. custody and other restrictions on detainee interrogation and prosecution.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051218/ap_on_go_co/congress_campaign_finance_2


Worried?

what the article didn't say was that the two provisions were added above the signatures after it had come out of committee, and that's why Warner, Levin and others were upset about the bill.

signed, I'd be pretty po'd too. It's astonishing, isn't it...

shut it down.

Last I saw, the Senate was in the second hour of a quorum call, but that no longer seems to be the case...