at the time of mccain-feingold, senator feingold was sort of a pest in some ways to the democratic leadership of the senate, and, you know, there was a little bit -- in many ways that was a miracle, that legislation was quite a political miracle. but what you have now in the previous congress when democrats controlled congress until 2010, you did have a majority of democrats supporting the fair elections now act, and the leadership on that was coming from people like john larson of connecticut who is the third-ranking democrat. i mean, it's deeply embedded at the highest levels in a way that in my experience i haven't really seen that before. it's been more of a specialized interest sometimes. at the legislative level. so i think, you know, if you, if democrats were to take back the house, you know, potentially you'd have a very different political configuration which republicans would have to respond to because i think they really care. i think in the past i think leaders would sometimes say on the one hand, yeah, it was good to say they were for campaign finance reform. on the other hand, l

those senators who voted for mccain-feingold on the republican side are gone. the party has moved don. it has a vault. -- the party has moved on. it has evolved. if you go back to the leadership in the 1994's, there were perennial discussions about campaign finance. bob dole was the republican leader. he was interested in making sure the republicans got a good deal or at least they did not get a bad deal. he was not opposed to campaign finance reform or legislation. in today's world where mitch mcconnell is the senate leader, he has spent years opposing legislation in this area, and trying to shut down regulation we have. that is largely because of senator mcconnell that we have an sec that is deadlocked to this degree and unable to take any action because it takes four votes. there's a two-thirds requirement for the sec to do anything, so we should not be surprised that they don't. having said that, and i think it really is a change, i still hold out hope that after the election and the new congress that they will at least take a look at the disclosure side. t

i say to you, the world body, if mccain-feingold was not so toothless, the prevalence of super pacs--sn't anybody going to give us the red meat rhetoric and innovative prop comedy we have come to expect from the united nations? >> this is a bomb-- (laughter) >> jon: that's what i'm talking about. >> this is a fuse. in the case of iran's nuclear plans to build a bomb, a red line should be drawn right here. (laughter) >> jon: okay, first of all, i just got to say, bebe, bubbi, what's with the wiley coyote nuclear bomb? are you really going to pretend, are you going to pretend that you don't know what a nuclear bomb looks like? you're israel. run downstairs and look in the batesment. although if that is the sort of bomb we're dealing with i think i've got a pretty easy solution to this entire iran problem. we'll be right back. 4h$h >> jon: welcome back, my guest tonight plays basketball with the new york knicker bockers and the author of a book series for children, number one home court, number two next week double team. please welcome to the program amare stoudemire. >> how are you doin

years earlier the supreme court has affirmed the constitutionality of the mccain-feingold law.but in a story i tell at greater length in trenton, the conservative majority converted a relatively minor dispute over an obscure film put out by a nonprofit corporation into a complete rewriting of our campaign finance laws, based on the dual metaphors that corporations are people, and money is speech. and those two ideas are at the heart of citizens united, and they are the story -- and that decision is very much the story of the 2012 presidential and perhaps even more importantly, lower about race -- lower ballot raise. that brings us to the health care case you're now, there were some so-called experts and pundits who watched the oral argument of that case and said well, it's quite clear that the law is going to be overturned because of the questions. and in my defense -- [laughter] i would just like to say, you know, whatever, okay? [laughter] it was basic cable, all right? you don't pay extra for cnn. [laughter] and everything. no, it was somewhat more informed decision than it.

you a letter in the mail saying you know vote for mitt romney how long ago was that part of mccain feingold or is that go back the way back to the seventy's ok so that's been my interrupted no no that's been on the books since the since the seventy's ok and actually what citizens united has done is made it legal now for employers to talk to their workers about who they're voting for actually it's legal now if you had employees you want to have all day long captive audience meetings where you brought in experts to talk about voting for mitt romney you could have those meetings and then you could grill. your employees about who they're going to vote for in front of their other employees you can terry get them out once but this is not unlike the way that they they deal with people who are trying to you know yeah it's basically they're taking the anti-union playbook which is a culture of fear of intimidation to stop a union drive in applying it to an election because you know here you've got folks a lot of folks working long hours don't have time to read the news of the boss comes in and says h

people that receive letters with anthrax in them or senators tom daschle patrick leahy and russ feingold some of those outspoken opponents to the impending patriot act several media outlets also received anthrax letters including the son new york post and the seas tom brokaw now the letters that were sent out appeared to be from muslim terrorists same phrases like death to america death to israel all law is great however soon after the attacks occurred the government acknowledged that al qaeda was no longer a sus. because the anthrax was in fact a highly weaponized military grade that could have only come from two bio defense facilities in the u.s. doug when you tell or fort detrick in maryland but of course that didn't stop the bush administration from continuing to peddle the propaganda that it was perpetrated by muslim terrorists think for a second about what it was that shifted our focus away from al qaeda and onto iraq remember this. a teaspoon of dry anthrax a little bit about this amount this is just about the amount of a teaspoon less than a teaspoon full of dry anthrax in an r.v

that is the challenge about the communications and mccain-feingold.what is all but influencing and what's just free-for-all speech out of that. the challenge is defining that zone and i think that is what it's about to read >> if you look at who is in the zone we have established a constitution that says citizens vote. citizens do not vote. we were worried what the european governments intervening commesso the inner circle was the individual citizens are the people who vote, then we decided that if you have green cards you can contribute to candidates, but not vote. so you look at this and say foreigners can't have a role in the election and losses you can't contribute. they can't spend money or make the independent expenditure. that's all reserved and vegetables. then you have to say where are the corporations in the middle of this? they are not individuals. the presumably are not foreigners although they may be owned by foreign corporations, but that line of conversation assumes that the government should have a role in deciding who is in a circle w

recently between the walker election and walker recall, with feingold losing there it's a tight race.ps putting his foot in his mouth. here he is talking about medicaid earlier. >> who better than me who have already set up one of the programs, doing away with medicaid and medicare. >> man see, i can't believe a guy saying who better to me than to end. >> can you imagine an american politician out on the stump in 2008 saying i want to end medicare and medicaid. he was up by a handful of points. his son is helping matters earth. his son this is his son i think it's jason is his name, jason thompson talking about barack obama. >> we have the opportunity to send president obama back to chicago. [ applause ] >> if you heard that, he said or kenya. >> or kenya. >> they run deceptive ads and have a tremendous amount of money to run them. for example, here's the one they ran against baldwin. >> tammy baldwin had the opportunity to vote to honor the victims of 9/11, and she voted against it. >> it's a slap in the face to every one of their families and anyone who has ever served in the united

i have a clear record of reaching across the aisle, whether it be joe lieberman or russ feingold or ted kennedy or others. that's my clear record. we can work on nuclear power plants, build a whole bunch of them, create millions of new jobs. we have to have all of the above, alternative fuels, wind, tide, solar, natural gas, clean coal technology. all of these things we can do as americans and we can take on this mission and we can overcome it. my friends, some of this $700 billion ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations. as far as health care is concerned, obviously, everyone is struggling to make sure that they can afford their premiums and that they can have affordable and available health care. that's the next issue. but we can do them all at once. there's no -- and we have to do them all at once. all three you mentioned are compelling national security requirements. >> i'm trying to play by the rules that you all established. one minute for discussion. senator obama, if you would give us your list of priorities, there are some real questions about whether everything can be

i've been saying that since 2010 with the ouster of russ feingold and also the election of scott walker then essentially the re-election of scott walker. then you put paul ryan in the state. his favorables at home are at 50%, pretty high. i think it is in play in the ways that you laid out, steven. i talked to the chairman of the rnc from wisconsin. they think the ground game in wisconsin is really, really good. of course they'll say that. they count wisconsin as a state in their column. i think probably even more than ohio. i think they feel really good about it. >> i agree that wisconsin is probably an easier reach than ohio, but i still don't see it. romney hasn't led in a poll there since august. he still has a three-point deficit. there's not much time left in the race. yes, scott walker won in the recall election. what the exit polls showed is a lot of people went and voted just against the idea of a recall. they were uncomfortable with recalling the state's governor. almost 92% of the people that voted for tom barrett are intending to vote for barack obama in november. only 76% o

citizens united, very quickly, russ feingold and i went over that case before the night states supreme court. i have never seen such in i e failure to understand what the realities of political campaigns were about then was displayed in those arguments. the united states supreme court by a 5-4 decision said money is free speech. isn't that interesting? that money is free speech. so we have seen these floodgates' unleashed. intelligently, the obama campaign spent hundreds of millions up -- hundreds of millions of dollars while the republican campaigns went on, the vilifying mitt romney. i can show you the chart of the unfavorables as the attacks went on. i think that contributed to the polarization. hundreds of millions of dollars spent -- $4 billion, -- $9 billion, 70% of it is on negative advertising on both sides. then obviously it will have an effect on the electorate. all i can say is that there was polarization and it did not work. -- i will not go revise history, but i believe there will be major scandals, major scandals, the history of this country has been corruption, reform, c

they've elected people like russ feingold and gaylord nelson over the years. that's not disqualifying. it's a close race. i probably would pit a pinky on the scale for baldwin. >> woodruff: arizona? this is a state, surprising. i mean, the democrats didn't really think they had a shot here >> six months ago democrats were enthusiastic always about richard carmona but the republican reaction was this was arizona. democrats said the surgeon general under president bush had a good story. he's hispanic. no legislative record. republicans have had a hard time dealing with him. flake had a conservative attacking him on immigration saying he was too soft on immigration. this is becoming a competitive race. i think the republicans do have a slight advantage >> look at the demographics. increasing number of hispanics who are eligible to vote and vote in arizona. it's made the presidential race there a little closer. if you look down the road arizona which has been a pretty republican state is increasingly moving toward becoming a more purple state. >> woodruff: another

bush had signed the mccain-feingold law. and just two years earlier the supreme court -- no, it was more than two, i think it was four years earlier -- the supreme court had affirmed the constitutionality of the mccain-feingold law. but in a story i tell at somewhat greater length in "the oath," the conservative majority converted a relatively minor dispute over an obscure film put out by a nonprofit corporation into a complete rewriting of our campaign finance laws based on the dual metaphors that corporations are people, and money is speech. and those two ideas are at the heart of, um, of citizens united, and and they are the story. and that decision is very much, um, the story of the 2012 presidential and perhaps even more importantly lower ballot races. .. is going to be overturned based on the oral arguments in part because in my experience roberts could this is not a court where they play a lot a lot of devils advocate. their usual argument, there are questions to, to make their case and it sure looked to me during mos

all designed around mccain-feingold. i'll try to defeat it is a supreme court, part of it. both diverse and then like citizens united, over rules state laws for giving money for elections. so that's why we've got to get a very, very fundamental effort here. public funding of public campaigns. and a lot of the money people race could be replaced by giving them a certain amount of free time unlicensed radio and television stations. that is we give them the license free to use our property 20 hours a day. they get it free. we could say no, no, you have to now get a certain amount of free time before elections to ballot qualified candidates. that will reduce a lot of the pressure to raise more and more money because that's where a lot of it goes. yes. >> i wanted to thank you for bringing up the united states health use of drones against so many of our close friends. [inaudible] but on this piece, every so often you have used the 2000 people per congressional constituency. and i ain't that's a really powerful idea. and i am wondering, have i missed, and the things that i have r

i have a clear record of reaching across the aisle, whether it be joe lieberman or russ feingold or ted kennedy or others. that's my clear record. we can work on nuclear power plants. build a whole bunch of them, create millions of new jobs. we have to have all of the above, alternative fuels, wind, tide, solar, natural gas, clean coal technology. all of these things we can do as americans and we can take on this mission and we can overcome it. >> my friends, some of this $700 billion ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations. as far as health care is concerned, obviously, everyone is struggling to make sure that they can afford their premiums and that they can have affordable and available health care. that's the next issue. but we can do them all at once. there's no -- and we have to do them all at once. all three you mentioned are compelling national security requirements. >> i'm trying to play by the rules that you all established. one minute for discussion. senator obama, if you would give us your list of priorities, there are some real questions about whether everything can

john i worked together on mccain-feingold, patients' bill of rights.n together and i'm proud of the fact we did. it's harder to do that today in part i think because of the airplane. the airplane has allowed people to leave on thursdays, come back on tuesdays and they're not in washington as much as they used to be. when your father was there, they spent the week there. you don't have the opportunity to bond and develop relationships these days like you used to. media is totally different now then it was back then. back then you had walter conkrite. today you have people on fox news and msnbc that are not as much referees as participants in the political process. and that process is really caused i think a i think it is also in part because back in the old days, did not switch back and forth between majority and minority that frequently. that used to be -- and being in the majority was an opportunity to begin to implement your agenda. today winning the agenda is the end in and of itself. do not want to give credit to the other side. there is a lack of

i'm telling you, i will make it the -- i will make the mccain- feingold campaign finance reform bille very first measure that i send to the congress as president. governor bush opposes it. i wish that he would consider changing his mind on that. because i think that the special interests have too much power, and we need to give our democracy back to the american people. let me tell you why. those issues you mentioned, social security, prescription drugs, the big drug companies are against the prescription drug proposal that i've made. the hmos are against the patient's rights bill, the dingle-norwood bill that i support, and that gov. bush does not support. the big oil companies are against the measures to get more energy independence and renewable fuel. they ought to have their voices heard, but they shouldn't have a big megaphone that drowns out the american people. we need campaign finance reform and we need to shoot straight with young and old alike and tell them what the real choices are. and we can renew and rekindle the american spirit and make our future what our founders dre

bush had signed the mccain-feingold law. and just two years earlier the supreme court -- no, it was more than two, i think it was four years earlier -- the supreme court had affirmed the constitutionality of the mccain-feingold law. but in a story i tell at somewhat greater length in "the oath," the conservative majority converted a relatively minor dispute over an obscure film put out by a nonprofit corporation into a complete rewriting of our campaign finance laws based on the dual metaphors that corporations are people, and money is speech. and those two ideas are at the heart of, um, of citizens united, and and they are the story. and that decision is very much, um, the story of the 2012 presidential and perhaps even more importantly lower ballot races. .. is going to be overturned based on the oral arguments in part because in my experience roberts could this is not a court where they play a lot a lot of devils advocate. their usual argument, there are questions to, to make their case and it sure looked to me during mos

i want to recognize former senator russ feingold. [cheers] thank you for everything you've done for this state and everything that he's doing for the campaign here in wisconsin. and most of all, i want to thank all of you, especially all the students here at lawrence university. thanks for being here. yes! yes! now, you all seem pretty fired up and ready to go. [cheers] and that's great because i'm feeling pretty fired up and ready to go myself. yes indeed. you know, the wonderful thing about coming out into the country, coming and doing rallies, speaking to you guys is that i get to do one of my favorite things -- i get to talk about the man i have loved and admired for -- since 23 years ago. i've been sharing a little of our business, all right? just a little. but back when we first met, barack had everything going for him, all right? ladies, listen -- he was handsome. still is. dd don't you think? he was charming, talented and oh, so very, very smart. but that is not why i married him. so fellows, listen to this. what truly made m

i'm telling you, i will make it the -- i will make the mccain- feingold campaign finance reform bille very first measure that i send to the congress as president. governor bush opposes it. i wish that he would consider changing his mind on that. because i think that thepecial interests have too much power, and we need to give our democracy back to e american people. let me tell you why. those issues you mentioned, social security, prescription drugs, the big drug companie are against the prescription drug proposal that i've made. the hmos are against the patient's rights bill, the ding-norwood bill that i support, and that gov. bush does not support. the g oil compies are ainst the measures to get more energy independence and renewablfuel. ey ought to have their voices heard, but they shouldn't have a big megaphone that drowns out the american people. we need campaign finance reform and we need to shoot straight with young and old alike and tell them what the real choices are. and we can renew and rekindle the american spirit and make our future what our founders dreamed it could be.

about an accent or even teddy roosevelt or going back, you could argue that drives of the mccain-feingoldnd the five conversation. you know, are we at a point right now i would ask our guests, with a conversation about the process overtakes the process. i want to come back in a minute. but before we dive, it's worth noting we are talking about a key trillion dollars possible election that of a party at the point in this election cycle we maxed out the most amount of money spent. before we get into it, i couldn't have this conversation today with out to incredible gas. some of you may have seen coming in there are copies of john koza spoke. he is the chairman of the national popular vote and the originator do with spent time discussing the national popular vote legislation and the author of this book, which is now in the back. i'm also joined by john samples who is the director of the cato's center for representative government. he has a wide range of knowledge posts in this particular topic, but also broader issues of reform i hope we'll get a chance to talk about what is working on. [app

the citizens united, very quickly, russ feingold and i went over before the united states supreme court. i've never seen the naÏve failure to understand what the reality is that the gore campaign or about and displayed in those arguments and of course the united states supreme court by a five to for decision says its free speech. it's not interesting that money is free speech? said noticing this floodgates unleashed, spent hundreds of millions of dollars while the republican campaign is going on, vilifying that romney as unfavorables thereof. i can assure the unfavorables as the caveats went on. i think that may have also contributed a lot to this polarization going on. the hundreds of millions of dollars spent or 4 billion or 9 billion, 70% of it is on negative advertising on both sides. obviously that's going to have on the electorate. all i can ay is that there is polarization. so i won't go revise history, but i believe there will be major scandals, major scandals in the history of this country is corruption, reform, corruption, reform. there's going to be major scandals because the

those senators who voted for mccain- feingold are gone. the party has moved on and the ball. the ball. but there the 1990's were perennial discussions about changing the campaign of finance. it took place in the world or someone like the republican leader was interested in making sure each of the republicans got a good deal or not a bad deal but he is not opposed to reform or legislation. this is partially or largely because we have an fcc that is deadlocked at 3-3 because it takes four votes. that is a 2/3 requirement for the fcc to do anything. it is now as a prize of they don't. i think there really is a change in the way congress looks at this in a non-partisan way. i still hold out hope that after the election in the new congress that will at least take care of this of this closure. -- of this disclosure. they say the disclosure of advertising as well as election ads for campaign ads was constitutional. they went further and said it is a good thing. citizens should know who's paying for these ads. shareholders should know with their corporate structure to the eye injured

i think the campaign finance laws, mccain-feingold are an absolute disaster.hey neuter political parties with him about the the power to groups that are unaccountable to the american public. the basic concept that we can take politics out of politics is absurd. i can't imagine that anybody who wants to see transparent the -- look, where the situation in pennsylvania. add drained out that million-dollar contributions enabling for governor. but everybody knew him. he did. he got million-dollar transfigurations. >> 87 people that give me more than a hundred thousand dollars. >> we have a rule of pennsylvania that you can take as much money is run as long as you disclose it publicly. those folks, the 80 people who spend in excess of $2500 to help adrem they'll become governor were going to spend that money. but now you know because you spent given to him and you know therefore instead of admit to some group that has some funny name to show for good after election and have them have the power to elect or unelect the next president or united states senator. that is

senate and my colleagues mccain and feingold said because of the way that i ran my race in 2000 thate people to move forward with this campaign finance reform. >> it is interesting to hear her talk about this. i think money and politics causes a big problem. i'm at a tremendous disadvantage at financially in this race, and it has made it difficult to get to the truth out and talk about solutions and ideas. if i could wave a magic wand, it would be no television advertising. we would go barnstorming the state and have real discussion and ideas. i think that would be a better process to get people elected. obviously, there is a free- speech consideration. i absolutely support greater transparency and full disclosure in terms of how we finance campaigns. our american republic is so special, but if you devalue and corrupt the process by which people are elected and play games with financing campaigns, you in danger our basic democracy. yes, i support campaign finance reform and transparency requirements. >> the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform has recommended a $12

i'm telling you, i will make it the -- i will make the mccain-feingold campaign finance reform bill thevery first measure that i send to the congress as president. governor bush opposes it. i wish that he would consider changing his mind on that. because i think that the special interests have too much power, and we need to give our democracy back to the american people. let me tell you why. those issues you mentioned, social security, prescription drugs, the big drug companies are against the prescription drug proposal that i've made. the hmos are against the patient's rights bill, the dingle-norwood bill that i support, and that gov. bush does not support. the big oil companies are against the measures to get more energy independence and renewable fuel. they ought to have their voices heard, but they shouldn't have a big megaphone that drowns out the american people. we need campaign finance reform and we need to shoot straight with young and old alike and tell them what the real choices are. and we can renew and rekindle the american spirit and make our future what our founders dream

[ bell chimes ] [ applause ] >> stephanie: senator russ feingold who joins us now. >> you are in londonl ryan. >> yeah, i was there seventeen years before him. >> stephanie: i don't know if you have seen him having a hard time explaining his budget. maybe i'm being overconfident. i think joe biden is going to make mincemeat out of him. >> i don't know about mincemeat. he didn't have serious opposition before this. and he can spout these budgets that don't add up until he gets to be picked for vice president candidate. and then i saw him on that show it was unbelievable. you didn't have time to explain it. he has $4 trillion in tax cuts especially for upper income people, but only $1 trillion in food stamps and pell grants and items like that. and biden does know how to hone in on stuff like that. >> stephanie: i'm just a layperson, but when someone tells me they haven't had time to run the numbers on a budget that's absurd to me. >> yeah, he should be able to convey what it is all about. but there is a reason he is not doing it. and that's because it doesn't add up. it is a huge tax cut