As Fred Thompson has explained on numerous occasions dating all the way back to his interview with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday on March 11, ‘07; Fred’s campaign promise was to stop the corruption of our elected officials wherein he saw soft money donations literally pumped into Clinton's re-election bid as if it were being poured in from cement trucks. Although Fred regrets the attachment that was tacked on to the bill which was the "Ad Restriction" or otherwise known as the "incumbent protection" attachment which ended organized tax exempt groups participation 90 or 60 days prior to an election, he had no choice if he wanted the soft money bribery to be stopped before the next election. Bill Clinton and Dick Morris were responsible for going far above the well established limits of soft money donations as Fred has also said here;
From Fred’s extended chat with Laura Ingraham
http://www.twango.com/media/thepolitico.public/thepolitico.10002
“...My main motivation for Campaign Finance Reform...was a matter of whether you want to get rid of soft money… Bill Clinton and Dick Morris showed that you could use soft money in ways that people thought you could be put in jail for a short time ago so, they poured it in and instead of having the agreed upon limitations that historically..."everybody else” pretty much acknowledged were Constitutional because they have to do with federal elections and the idea that you don’t want to give too much money to any individual member of Congress and then come and lobbying him for a bill, I mean that’s called bribery in the real world but, they came in with this soft money to do the same thing, through the back door so, we wanted to do away with that. Now, they added on something that was a mistake and that is the issue ad you were talkin’ about and I voted for all of it so, I support the first part but, not that.”
Therefore, who was actually responsible for the “Issue Ad"/"Ad Restrictions” if Fred wasn’t?;
Senators Paul Wellstone, Arlen Spector, John McCain, Olympia Snowe and James Jeffords. ( Surely, there were a few more who assisted. )
The only thing Fred Thompson was directly responsible for on that bill was the established hard money limit which he successfully negotiated to $2,300.
A last word about this to keep in mind when looking at any legislation before either houses of Congress:
A bill is authored and then manipulated, twisted and contorted by both parties in a never-ending chess game of give and take. Unfortunately for us, their own party’s advancement, the power they individually could gain or even the dirt that can be kicked up later in their opposition’s face are their priorities and ultimate goals. The bill itself is not where the fighting ends. Amendments strategically timed or dubbed as “deal breakers” may be added throughout the process as many of us saw for the first time with the Shamnesty bill. Amendments to strike certain passages of the bill or add to it are also voted on or are outright denied to even be considered depending on who is in the majority and other factors too deep to bother with here. In all this insanity We, the people, come in dead last in consideration.
After all, don’t we know who they are??
So, when we look at any piece of legislation from now on we’ll have a much better understanding of what really goes on with each and every one and perhaps, more importantly, just how many cooks are stirring the broth and if you're caught between a rock and a hard place of knowing you must have the one part of the bill pass before a certain amount of time expires you WILL have to swallow nonsense that shouldn't even be in the bill...just like Fred had to on McCain-Feingold.