Because you would have to be completely vegetative not to know who this money is designed to help. The end result, reformers say, is cynicism and voter apathy. Citizens believe their votes don't count when they think deals are cut in smoke-filled rooms. All the big 1996 campaign-finance scandals, such as renting out the Lincoln Bedroom, revolved around soft money. U.S. Sen. John McCain from Arizona seizes the analogy in stump speech after stump speech.
Listeners roar and wave hand-held American flags.
Multi-colored confetti rains down. Candidates and Their Positions McCain, a 17-year veteran of Washington politics, has made reform the cornerstone of his campaign. The McCain-Feingold bill, which would ban soft money outright, gathered a majority of U.S. Senate votes in October but stalled to a filibuster. A companion bill twice had passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The law, had the bill passed, would ban all soft money, says McCain aid Mike Buse.