41.   McCain would probably accept a stripped-down bill aimed only at banning soft money.

42.   Mosbacher, chairman of a Texas energy company, thinks that if corporate soft money is banned, independent spending by labor unions must be constrained.

43.   Nominating John Ashcroft for attorney general and banning foreign aid money for family planning involving abortion counseling were only the first two bones tossed to the right wing.

44.   Now the effort to ban such money could be at a turning point as the House takes up the issue on Tuesday and Wednesday.

45.   Republican leaders pressured Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to scale back his proposal to ban soft money.

46.   Rick Phelps, who is running in a Democratic primary for Congress in Wisconsin, called on his two primary opponents to ban soft money from their own campaigns.

47.   Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., spoke Wednesday of his concerns about keeping up with the GOP if soft money is banned.

48.   Sen. Russ Feingold is a Democrat from Wisconsin and a sponsor of legislation that would ban soft money.

49.   Shays-Meehan, like the McCain-Feingold bill already passed by the Senate, would ban soft money.

50.   Since then, John McCain has pursued the need to ban soft money as his political Holy Grail.