Courage in the House

In the weeks leading up to the Senate’s April 2 vote on the McCain-Feingold bill, there was real concern that important campaign finance reform legislation that had twice been blocked by Republican filibusters might this time be done in by Democratic cold feet. In the end, the bill passed comfortably, 59-41, but the victory came with a lot of squirming.

Now it is the House’s turn and the fidgeting is even more pronounced. The House has passed similar legislation – the Shays-Meehan bill – twice before, so opponents there are having to pretend as though something they’ve debated vigorously since 1998 is a bolt from the blue, a shocking and unexpected development that requires much more study, even a new round of hearings.

This is extraordinary caution for lawmakers who just a month ago rushed through a major part of President Bush’s tax-cut plan before they even glanced at the full budget proposal to see if it was affordable. A good antidote for the House’s timidity can be found in the chamber at the other end of the Capitol.

Sen. Russ Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who joined with Republican Sen. John McCain in this crusade, was in Maine last Friday partly to talk up some rural health care initiatives he’s working on. Mostly, though, he was here to let Maine people know how important their two senators – Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – were in the Senate victory.

He said the Snowe-Jeffords amendment to shed light on the politicking of anonymous special-interest groups was a vital provision and the early support for reform by Maine’s senior senator was crucial. Sen. Collins, Sen. Feingold’s “unsung hero” of the debate, was just the third Republican to back McCain-Feingold, a newcomer who stuck her neck out despite dire warnings that she would pay dearly for crossing her party’s leadership.

As in the Senate, the House objections to even a modest cleansing of the corrupt campaign finance system are based not upon overarching free speech but upon the instinct for self-preservation – above all, the current system protects incumbents. The bill’s sponsors, Reps. Christopher Shays and Martin Meehan, are calling, boldly and correctly, for a debate and vote between now and Memorial Day, a time when the House has little else to do. House leadership tried to stall Shays-Meehan in both 1998 and 1999, but the majority forced the votes with discharge petitions. That is a humiliation Speaker Dennis Hastert can avoid by allowing the bill to proceed.

In the technical details, McCain-Feingold is a relatively modest bill; its significance is in the extent to which it can reverse cynicism the public has toward government. The strategy reform opponents now have mapped out will be devastating if it succeeds – if reform can’t be stopped in the House, a substantially different bill will be passed so a conference committee can kill it. For that reason, the House must pass a bill similar to McCain-Feingold and it must believe that President Bush will not veto a bill with strong bipartisan support.

It will take a certain amount of courage for House members to compel their leadership to act, just as it will take courage for them to vote for a campaign-finance reform bill that gives challengers a bit more of a fighting chance against incumbents. In this case, such courage isn’t hard to find; all the House needs to do is to look down the hall at the Senate.