Watergate also led to laws, from the War Powers Act limiting presidential authority to civil liberties protections meant to limit intrusions such as wiretapping. Watergate also brought campaign finance laws meant to keep individuals and special interests from buying influence with big bucks. But the bucks keep flowing, bringing Congress full circle to today's investigation. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. The American people see their leaders go to greater and greater extremes to raise unprecedented amounts of money to fund their political campaigns.
Power is at stake, and the ends justify the means.
In exposing this system it is not so much that we expect to surprise the American people. We are not here to conduct a witch hunt. We must ignore the temptations to assign guilt by association, especially ethnic association. . . . Copyright 1997 Associated Press . All rights reserved.