Campaign Finance Reform

WASHINGTON - After years of delaying tactics, often mixed with crocodile tears over the delays, the House of Representatives has to face the music this week when campaign finance reform finally comes to the floor. Proponents of a modest reform bill that would ban unregulated "soft money" in federal campaigns, and those who say they want reform but really don't will have to turn up their hole cards in one of Capitol Hill's longest-running political poker games. The pressure of public opinion and the embarrassment of the Enron scandal have helped the reformers break House Speaker Dennis Hastert's hammerlock on the legislation sponsored by Republican Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut and Democratic Rep. Marty Meehan of Massachusetts.

Enron's misbehavior shows business needs to be tightly regulated The continuing stream of disgusting revelations about the sleazy business practices of Enron Corp. and its "auditor," Arthur Andersen Inc., is a terrific example of why corporate America needs more regulation and supervision, not less. And the report that Enron paid no income taxes in four of the last five years is another example of how the vast majority of American taxpayers have been swindled by tax benefits given to businesses.

WASHINGTON - In the days leading up to Sept. 11, Sen. John McCain was consumed with the issues that have come to define him: campaign-finance reform, a patients' bill of rights and efforts to rid the capital of corporate special interests. But the terrorist attacks have transformed the Arizona Republican's immediate agenda, eclipsing the causes that helped elevate his presidential campaign last year. Now, he has remade his agenda to focus on homeland defense, national service and military strategy.

WASHINGTON - Before Sept. 11, one of the principal legislative objectives of congressional reformers was campaign finance reform, with advocates of both parties poised for a final push to enactment. The Senate had already passed its version of the bill banning soft money, and the House, having approved such legislation in two previous sessions, was ready to do the same. But now, with only weeks before the end of the year, the legislation appears stalled, at least until Congress comes back from the year-end holidays.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is taking some political heat this month for getting away from the oppressive heat of the nation's capital, but you can't fault his timing. With Congress also out of town, it's duller around here than a congressional hearing on budget and economic projections. The good legislators are back in their districts, and a few of them have been sneaking off on the usual overseas junkets, some legitimate and some questionable. Senators Joe Biden, D-Del., and Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

WASHINGTON - The failure of the House to achieve an up-or-down vote on campaign finance reform says more about the leadership of Speaker Dennis Hastert and his chief sidekick/intimidator, Majority Whip Tom DeLay, than about the pros or cons of the proposed legislation. The disgraceful performance displayed on and off the House floor Thursday, culminating in the rejection by 25 votes of a procedural rule whereby the Shays-Meehan bill would have had to be considered piecemeal rather than in one decisive vote, was a transparent bit of legerdemain.

MONEY'S LIKE heroin to politicians. They want it. They need it. And as much as they flirt with quitting their habit for good, they always come slinking back for more. So even if a bill banning so-called "soft money" had passed the House and been signed by President Bush, cash would still have been a corrupting issue in American politics. Corporate pushers would have found another way to peddle their influence. Public officials would still have been able to get their finance fix. But campaign finance reform legislation (known as McCain-Feingold in the Senate and Shays-Meehan in the House)

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision limiting how much political parties can give directly to candidates' campaigns isn't quite a green light for banning soft money as proposed in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, but at least it's not a red light. That should help achieve passage when the bill, already cleared by the Senate, comes up in the House shortly. The ruling doesn't deal directly with soft (unregulated) money, but it does reaffirm the basic notion that large amounts of money can be a corrupting influence in the election process and hence can constitutionally be limited.

WASHINGTON -- Smoldering on the Senate floor the other day after a majority of his colleagues had cleared the way for passage of the McCain-Feingold bill, Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Darth Vader against campaign finance reform, let loose an uncommon tirade. After years of blocking the legislation with a combination of bullying, delaying tactics and injecting "poison pill" amendments intended to drive off Democratic votes, Mr. McConnell was reduced to whining. With open contempt for the 53 senators whose votes had overcome the last major hurdle in the way, he called the action a "stunningly stupid thing to do."

WASHINGTON -- Democrat Fritz Hollings, at 79 still the junior senator from South Carolina behind ageless (actually 98-year-old) Republican Strom Thurmond, stood alone on the Senate floor the other afternoon, figuratively spitting into the wind. With none of the other 99 senators in sight, Mr. Hollings proposed at length a constitutional amendment intended to solve the dispute over campaign finance reform. But, as Mr. Hollings well knew, there was no chance whatever of Senate approval. The hot issue of what to do about out-of-control campaign fund-raising and spending had dominated the Senate with lively debate for more than a week.