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Like the hero of a paperback thriller, campaign-finance reform keeps dodging bullets. Legislation meant to clean up the political-money game was almost left for dead last summer, but the Enron scandal revived it again. And last Wednesday evening the bill survived yet another near-death experience, when its backers in the House went head-to-head with one of their most powerful opponents, the National Rifle Association. Republicans, led by Tom DeLay, the majority whip from Sugar Land, Texas, offered a clever "poison pill" amendment that would have exempted gun-rights groups from the bill's limits...
...bill isn't sent to conference, where it might languish. Senate Republicans will try to filibuster that vote, but majority leader Tom Daschle believes he has the 60 votes needed to end debate and get the bill to the White House by early next month. Chastened by the Enron scandal, George W. Bush is expected to sign it. He opposed the measure during his primary battle with McCain, but he would rather ride a train than be run over by it. Last week he enraged House Speaker Dennis Hastert by barely lifting a finger to fight the bill...
After Nov. 5, however, the bill would have a dramatic effect--preventing corporations, unions and fat cats from writing million-dollar checks to buy influence with the parties. (Enron and its affiliates, for example, spent over $2 million in soft money for the 2000 elections.) But just as water tends to find ways to flow, "money will still get to the campaigns," predicts a G.O.P. fund raiser. Special-interest groups wouldn't be able to use soft money to broadcast attacks on radio or TV just before an election, but the bill doesn't prevent them from putting that cash...
When telecommunications giant Global Crossing sought bankruptcy protection last month, the messy corporate collapse had all the makings of a Democratic Enron. Republicans burned by the Enron debacle gleefully trumpeted the fact that Global Crossing had given more than half its $800,000 in campaign contributions to the Democrats during the last presidential campaign. And the G.O.P. raised tantalizing questions about how Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe had managed to make an $18 million killing as an investor in Global Crossing stock...
...took his lunch partners--Cook and ex-Global CEO Tom Casey--to a foreign-car dealership, sources tell TIME. In roughly 30 minutes he bought a Rolls-Royce for Cook and an Aston Martin for Casey. Such generosity may be fine in the corporate world, but in the post-Enron era, politicians are finding that it comes at a price...