Welcome. I'm Bill Moyers. And when I met Richard Painter some months ago, I thought he must be the loneliest man in the Republican Party. He's a conservative, and of course, I'm not. But he believes, as do I, that there's too much money in politics.

Now, political insiders know Richard Payner well, as President George W. Bush's White House

Counselor and Chief Ethical Advisor. He's now teaching law at the University of Minnesota.

And he's causing heads to turn with the book advocating that we reduce the power of big money in politics.

Its title is Taxation Only with Representation, the Conservative Conscience and Campaign Finance Reform.

There's a lot to learn from it, and I urge you to read it because it is rare today to find a conservative who will admit, as Mr. Painter does,

that money corrupts politics and then makes his case with so much passion and logic.

His book is also timely because the issue has reached a boiling point this year.

Thousands of people descended on Washington just this month in a movement they call

Democracy Spring, deliberately getting arrested to protest in behalf of cleaner politics and a government

liberated from big money. Every poll I've consulted reveals a deep and substantial support in this

country for those objectives.

Most Americans agree that rich people should be able to buy more houses than anyone else,

buy more cars and more clothes and more gizmos, even take more vacations than anyone else.

But they don't think rich people should be able to buy more democracy than anyone else.

Richard Painter joins me now to talk about how to rein in the power of big money in politics

so that we are indeed, as his book suggests, government of, by, and for the people.

Welcome.

Well, thank you very much, Bill.

Do you feel like the loneliest man in the Republican Party?

Well, among grassroots Republicans and ordinary voters, I do not. I think there is a overwhelming

support for campaign finance reform, and that includes conservatives and Republicans. Where the problem is is with the leadership,

...