Senate leader says filibuster doomed

Moving swiftly, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle pledged Thursday to try to pass sweeping legislation to rewrite campaign spending rules "the minute we receive it" from the House. He said any filibuster was doomed.

"This is the year we're finally going to pass campaign finance reform," Daschle, D-S.D., said at a combination news conference and celebration arranged by jubilant supporters of the measure less than eight hours after the House approved it.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer did not respond directly when asked whether President Bush would sign the bill designed to reduce the influence of money in political campaigns. "The president will wait to be declarative until he sees what the final bill is," Fleischer said, although supporters and opponents alike have predicted for days that Bush's approval was assured.

The developments unfolded as the Senate's principal opponent of the measure, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he wanted to study the House-passed bill before deciding on a strategy. Either way, he seemed resigned to passage, telling reporters he would be the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to be filed if the bill became law.

Last year's failure

An earlier version of the campaign finance bill, backed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Russell Feingold, D-Wis., passed the Senate last year on a vote of 59-41. But one lawmaker who voted in opposition then, Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., issued a statement indicating he would support it when it came to the floor. Barring any other switches, that appeared to assure Daschle and the bill's supporters the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

"If I were a Republican up for re-election in the Senate, I'd ask myself, 'Do you want to be part of a continuing filibuster?'" McCain said.

Supporters say the legislation would help clean up the nation's political campaigns by banning soft money, the unlimited donations that unions, corporations and individuals make to political parties. The bill also would curtail late-campaign "attack ads" that have proliferated in recent years, by prohibiting the use of soft money to pay for them to be broadcast.

Republican critics argue the bill is unconstitutional and biased in favor of Democrats.

John Feehery, a spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said the formal paperwork probably would go out from the House in a few days, probably after the start of a weeklong congressional recess beginning Friday.

Under the Senate's rules, opponents have at least two opportunities to derail the bill by forcing supporters to come up with 60 votes, and final passage could consume roughly a week.

Daschle announced his intention to move as quickly as possible came on the heels of a 240-189 vote in the House at 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

Final roll call

The final roll call came at the end of a 16-hour marathon session in which a bipartisan coalition bent, but never broke, in the face of a series of politically appealing amendments by the GOP leadership.

The closest call for the bill's supporters came on a proposal to lift all advertising restrictions relating to the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Supported by the powerful National Rifle Association, the amendment failed narrowly, 219-209 following aggressive lobbying by House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., as well as Republican supporters of the measure.