• "Mike Wittenwyler, Mr. Feingold's campaign manager, speaks of a ‘vendetta' by Mr. McConnell against Senator Feingold. A Republican lobbyist in Washington said confidently, ‘Mitch will spend what it takes in Wisconsin.' And a Republican Senator said Mr. McConnell recently told him: ‘Don't worry about campaign reform. Feingold's going to be dead meat by Christmas.'" (New York Times, October 22, 1998)

• "In 1999, when the Committee for Economic Development (CED)-a trade group representing large corporations-announced its support for a ban on soft money, McConnell wrote a furious letter, on NRSC letterhead, to leaders of companies belonging to CED, denouncing the group's ‘all-out campaign to eviscerate private-sector participation in politics,' and urging them to quit the organization. ‘I hope you will resign from CED,' he scribbled at the bottom of one copy. Many recipients of the letter saw in it an implicit threat that, unless they withdrew from CED and stopped supporting reform efforts, their companies would receive unfavorable treatment from Congress." (Washington Monthly, October 2006)

Excerpt from a deposition of Sen. Mitch McConnell for the case of Adams et al. v. FEC on Sept. 23, 2002. The Adams case challenged the hard-money increases in BCRA. In the deposition, McConnell gets caught up by plaintiff lawyer John Bonifaz and basically admits that he only knows the CEOs and major donors, not "waiters or waitresses."

John Bonifaz: You stated earlier that you know some people who have given you the maximum level of contributions. Do you know any schoolteachers who've given you that maximum level of $1,000?

Mitch McConnell: I -- I don't know what the professions are of the donors. The FEC records I believe require to make our best effort to get that. But I couldn't tell you off the top of my head what the incomes -- or I wouldn't know what their income was or what their profession is of donors.

Bonifaz: Do you know any waiters or waitresses who've given you a $1,000 or more?

McConnell: As I said, I don't know the income level or the occupations. I have no recollection of that, of the people who support me.

Bonifaz: Do you know any coal miners who have given you $1,000 or more?

McConnell: As I said, I don't -- I don't -- we don't check our donors to find out what their occupations are or what their income level is.

Bonifaz: Do you know any nurses who have given you $1,000 or more?

McConnell: As I said, we don't check on the occupation or the income level of donors.

Bonifaz: Do you know any janitors or maids who have given you $1,000 or more?

McConnell: I don't -- as I've said, I don't know the occupation nor do I know the -- how much that my donors make.

Bonifaz: Do you know anyone who holds a minimum wage job who's given you $1,000 or more?

McConnell: As I've said, I don't know the income level or occupation of the donors that have contributed to me.

Bonifaz: Do you know any corporate executives who have given you $1,000 or more?

McConnell: As I said, I don't -- I don't look at the income level or the occupation.

Bonifaz: Senator, you understand you're under oath?

McConnell: I do.

Bonifaz: Do you know any corporate executives who have ever given you $1,000 or more?

McConnell: I know a number of people who've given me $1,000 or more in a whole variety of different occupations.

Bonifaz: Do you know if any of them are corporate executives?

McConnell: Some of them are corporate executives; some of them are other things.