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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (16483)	12/1/1998 3:33:00 PM
From: pezz	Respond to of 67261

Jeeze... Couldn't Dole do anything right? pez

To: DMaA who wrote (16483)	12/1/1998 3:46:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Funny, David. Your headline doesn't quite match the story, does it? My neighbor and Senator Russ Feingold has his name on a campaign finance reform bill, and his opponent got a lot of soft money in return. I don't think the Republicans are in a very good position to go off lecturing on the evil of soft money. Didn't work in this case, fortunately or unfortunately. Sen. Mitch McConnell cannot vote in Wisconsin. A Republican, he represents Kentucky on Capitol Hill. But he may have more to say than anyone else about whether his colleague, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., retains his seat next month. Along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Feingold is the co-author of a bill that would reform campaign finance, in part by eliminating "soft money" -- funds spent by local or national organizations on behalf of but supposedly independent of political candidates. McConnell is the bill's archenemy, and he also happens to be the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has plenty of soft money to spend. The result: At least a million Senatorial Committee dollars, by local estimates, and maybe twice that many, have cascaded into Wiscondin in recent months to buy television commercials promoting Feingold's Republican rival, Rep. Mark Neumann. If Feingold wins, campaign finance reform will get a lift; if he loses, the reform cause will suffer a major setback. The outcome here in Wisconsin could also play a significant part in determining whether the Republicans gain the five seats that they need to give them 60, enough to stop a Democratic filibuster on a party-line vote. Six or seven seats now held by Democrats are in jeopardy, including that of Feingold, a soft-spoken, slightly fey former Rhodes Scholar with a broad maverick streak. Mike Wittenwyler, Feingold's campaign manager, speaks of a "vendetta" by McConnell against Feingold. A Republican lobbyist in Washington said confidently that "Mitch will spend what it takes in Wisconsin." And a Republican senator said McConnell had told him recently: "Don't worry about campaign reform. Feingold's going to be dead meat by Christmas." That remains to be seen. But this much is clear: Before the Republican television blitz began on Aug. 11 with a series of commercials that Feingold allowed to go unanswered for a month, the senator held a lead of 10 to 15 percentage points in most polls. Afterwards, the race became a dead heat, and so it remains at the moment, with less than two weeks left until Election Day. (http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/sen/articles/102398wi-sen.html)