http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/14/politics/14DONA.html
Sponsors Assert Soft Money Ban May Be Diluted By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
WASHINGTON, June 13 — The ban on unrestricted political donations to the national political parties enacted by Congress earlier this year could soon be significantly weakened by regulators at the Federal Election Commission, the four authors of the legislation say. ...
But supporters of the law say they are much more upset with Democratic Party officials, who they say are urging the commission to gut the law — despite the party's embrace of it in Congress.
In a letter sent today to the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, the president of Common Cause, Scott Harshbarger, said, "You and other party leaders cannot take public credit for enacting important reforms supported by the American people on the one hand, while sending your lawyers into court and into the F.E.C. to undermine the law, on the other." ...
A longtime advocate of campaign finance reform, Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21, added that it was an "extraordinary spectacle to see Democratic Party lawyers hard at work to drive huge loopholes into the new landmark campaign finance law that the Democratic leaders they represent played a central role in enacting just months ago." ...
Mr. McCain acknowledged that such a Congressional review would face a "very tough" fight. But he added that this dispute had also added momentum to potentially restructuring the election commission.