Word: hagel
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...reforms of a generation ago. The post-Watergate effort to tidy our politics only had the effect of brushing dirt into different corners. Last week party moneymen were looking for loopholes. "Anybody who thinks you'll have less money in politics as a result is just unrealistic," says Hagel. "The money will just go outside the system." A Democratic fund raiser in California jokes that in the short run wealthy people "may save some money." But not for long. "There will be ways to get around this. You work with the issue groups more closely...
...Rather than ban "soft money" donations to political parties, Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel's rival campaign finance bill would restrict them to $60,000 in yearly donations. Hagel's bill would also triple to $3,000 the limit on individual hard-money contributions, and codify full-disclosure requirements on donations...
...Breaking down the Hagel bill into its three parts and voting on each separately, the pro-McCain forces went two for three. Senators OK'd the full-disclosure requirements (which is the one part of campaign finance reform acceptable to hard-line opponents like Mitch McConnell and is not deemed a poison pill by McCain) and voted down the first two, leading supporters of the McCain-Feingold bill to cautiously claim a victory...
...McCain fared even better with the third part of the Hagel bill, which was the most significant, at least in terms of principle. Senators voted to "table" Hagel's soft-money limits 60-40, essentially killing the provision. And suddenly the future of campaign finance reform looked almost bright...
...thought it was constitutional, I would have voted for it," McCain said afterward. With the non-severability vote now a potential bill-killer, and Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel's rival bill, which would limit but legalize the "soft money" contributions McCain and Feingold are desperate to ban, due Tuesday, the rest of the week just got a lot more dangerous. But McCain says it ain't over...