Word: reformer
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...Senate began debating campaign-finance reform last week, the only safe bet was that things would soon get ugly. But by the second day, even that bet was off. And by Friday, astonishingly enough, the bill, which McCain co-authored with Democrat Russell Feingold, hadn't been killed - or even altered all that much - after a week in which an amendment was offered roughly every three hours. Just as unexpected was what did happen - something the Senate hasn't seen much of on any issue: a substantive, thoughtful and generally amicable debate. The kind the framers intended...
...Equally sobering is the fact that reform efforts inevitably have unintended consequences: the next generation of abuse and scandal. Soft money didn't exist until the 1980s, when political parties figured out a way to exploit loopholes in the last reform that Congress passed, opening the way for donors to give hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time under the guise of "party building." Even McCain acknowledges his bill would be at best a temporary fix, one that would work only until politicians and interest groups figure a way around...
...cynic would suggest the bonhomie was a sign that none thought the bill had a chance of passing. But a realist would give them credit for trying, while recognizing it as the protective warmth that envelops any effective mutual-aid society. Campaign finance reform may be an arcane subject, but it is also a matter of survival for politicians, as familiar as their morning coffee. And the senators were using their intimate knowledge of the subject to protect themselves and each other...
...plenty of other Democrats the cover they need to bolt. (It was so much easier for Democrats to oppose soft money before they became as good as Republicans at raising it.) Big increases in the hard-money limits, where Republicans still have an advantage, would make any claims of reform a sham. Says Senator Paul Wellstone: "It puts even more big money into politics...
...plant a time bomb called "non-severability," which ensures that if any part of the bill is struck down in court (the issue-ads provision is a likely candidate for rejection on constitutional grounds), the entire bill would fall. Non-severability, says McCain, "is French for 'kill campaign finance reform.'" But proponents of it may find support among Democrats, who fear that if courts start slicing off parts of the bill, they could find themselves facing a barrage of attack ads without the soft money to fight back. "We haven't really got to the hard parts...