I thought I’d pass along this 2006 Congressional Record tribute to Frank Valeo, whose distinguished career included participation in the first congressional delegation to the People’s Republic of China in 1972.   Mr. Valeo’s Washington Post obituary noted that he was, “by chance,” the defendant in Buckley v. Valeo.

In the 1980’s, Mr. Valeo participated in an oral history of his career with transcripts available here.  His musings on Buckley are priceless, of course, including this anecdote:

It was interesting that later, I guess, not more than three or four years ago, I met Joe Biden in Hawaii. We were there on a conference and we were talking about the law. He was running at the time, and he was complaining about the damn Federal Elections Commission and the law on campaign contributions. I said, “Well, you know, Joe, at the time I urged the Senate to go slower, not to go that whole route without knowing more, that in the name of reform they were risking some awfully bad crimes, but nobody paid any attention to my testimony.” He said, “I know, I was one of them.” I said, “Yeah, everything was reform, and a lot of crimes have been committed in that name.”