USATODAY
03/20/2002 - Updated 10:24 PM ET

Passage ends long struggle for McCain, Feingold

By William M. Welch and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Reveling in victory, Sen. John McCain apologized to his colleague, Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold. "In Wisconsin, a lot of people think his first name is McCain," he cracked.

For the two senators whose names have become synonymous with an overhaul of the political money system, Wednesday was the culmination of a seven-year struggle.

Since 1995, the two have pushed a bill known widely as "McCain-Feingold" that would change the way political dollars are raised and spent by candidates for federal office. McCain, an Arizona Republican, made the issue the centerpiece of his 2000 presidential campaign.

McCain said success, delivered with a 60-40 Senate vote, had been propelled by a series of scandals that awakened Americans. "It's the scandals — the buying of pardons, Enron — and making it a credible issue in the presidential campaign," he said.

Advocates faced resistance from Republican congressional leaders and the political parties, which feared losing an income stream that grew to nearly $500 million in the last election.

McCain said proponents were able to "overcome the parochial interests of members of Congress by going directly to the country."

The McCain-Feingold bill became perhaps the best-known legislation Congress has passed since the mid-1980s, when a deficit- and budget-cutting plan known by the names of its Republican sponsors, Phil Gramm and Warren Rudman, became the object of intense legal and political battles.

Feingold marveled at the long odds he and his allies had overcome: "There is one way to pass a bill and 1,000 ways to kill it. It's almost impossible to pass a bill that goes against special interests."

There were smiles and hugs all around when the two senators joined their House counterparts, Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., at a victory celebration. "I am somewhat speechless," McCain said, "although I am certain that affliction will not last long."

The bill's supporters will need their voices soon. After President Bush signs the bill into law, its chief congressional opponent, Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, plans to file a court challenge that will be expedited to the Supreme Court. "It's not over yet. We have another day, in court," McConnell said.

McConnell contends that the bill's core provisions banning unlimited "soft money" contributions to the national political parties, and its restrictions on election-season "issue ads," run afoul of the Constitution's guarantee of free speech. He'll likely be joined by an array of interest groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. The Senate passed a separate resolution allowing McConnell to be the lead plaintiff in the court challenge and waiving gift rules so that congressional proponents and opponents can accept free legal help.

Feingold said he will support the legal defense of the bill, which he expects Bush's Justice Department to lead. He previously gained a commitment from Bush's solicitor general, Theodore Olson, to defend the law in court.

Even McConnell, their leading opponent, paid tribute to the "tenacity" of McCain and Feingold in their long battle and gently faulted Bush for abandoning his opposition. "If the president had indicated antipathy, it would have been easier to defeat it."

For McCain and Feingold, passage of the bill is only the first step in a larger campaign to rid politics of big-money influence.

McCain said he wants to overhaul the Federal Election Commission, the panel charged with enforcing campaign-finance laws. The FEC is widely seen as hamstrung by political divisions. McCain noted that two FEC commissioners, Republicans David Mason and Bradley Smith, had lobbied against his legislation when it was before the House in February.

Feingold, whose reputation as an idealist has prompted him to consider running for president in 2004, will push for incentives for candidates to limit campaign spending in exchange for free or reduced-cost television advertising time. Such a provision was in the original reform bill in 1995 but was dropped along the way as part of a series of compromises.

"I certainly will not abandon this effort," Feingold said. "It is only the beginning. It is modest reform."