WaPost on Campaign Finance

The editorialists at the Washinton Post have declared McCain-Feingold a success.

While it is true that the parties have been successful financially in this election cycle, apparently despite the ban on soft money, the bill is not a success. The law limits the ability of groups to speak about issues if they simply mention a candidate unless it is paid for with PAC money, despite the fact that not everyone has a PAC.

The Post Editors do have one good suggestion:

And the 2006 campaign has pointed up one particularly ridiculous aspect of campaign finance law that ought to be fixed before 2008: The rules limit how much political parties can spend on candidates in consultation with them but allow parties to spend unlimited amounts on behalf of candidates so long as they act "independently." Thus there is the spectacle of a Republican National Committee ad attacking Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Harold E. Ford Jr. that the chairman of the RNC says he can't control -- because it was produced by an "independent" arm of the RNC. There's no good reason to force the political parties to engage in this charade of setting up independent groups.

Of course, the Post has to point up a Republican ad, without a comparative Democratic ad, whic do exist. But leaving that bias alone, the limits on coordinated expenditures and independent expenditures remains a very stupid regulatory environment. Parties, either party, should be able to advocate for its members without limitation--it is neither corruption nor the appearance of corruption. In fact it is expected.