Another Hard Road Ahead For Soft-Money Ban

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McCain can take comfort from the fact that a day of Republican cannibalism rites (performed while Democrats looked on in bemused horror) didnt harm his chances of picking up those votes. Thats because those chances remain at slim to none, and to mangle the old aphorism, Slims out back holding a fund-raiser. With McConnell the one in charge of doling out the Senate GOPs soft money, Republicans arent too keen on bucking him. Still, McCain and Feingold have done their part to make the bill as simple as possible, so as to give no one an easy excuse. Theyve shorn the bill of its amendments and put it forth as purely a soft-money ban, up or down an approach that has apparently won one convert, Sam Brownback of Kansas. But even if another seven relent, Dickerson says the Democrats - who have been unanimously and gleefully in support of the bill for years - will mysteriously find some reason why its no longer palatable.

"There are a lot of phony actors in this thing," says Dickerson. "A lot of the Democrats dont want a soft-money ban any more than the Republicans do. They just want the issue." Especially now that Democrats are now raising just as much soft money as Republicans - and it constitutes a bigger portion of their annual fund-raising haul. So heres a Congress 101 for you: When New Jersey Democrat Bob Torricelli says:

"Scaling back the campaign finance reform bill may get more Republicans aboard, but it leaves many of us who have been involved in the reform movement for years... believing that we are doing something and accomplishing nothing,"

hes lying. "Torricellis the head Democratic fund-raiser in the Senate," says Dickerson. "He doesnt want this law. But if this thing starts to get close, youre going to hear a lot of Democrats say very similar things: that stripped down, the bill suddenly doesnt do enough."

And so it goes. A similar bill to McCain and Feingolds original vision has already passed the House, but the going there is smoother because folks with two-year terms get a lot sicker of spending almost every day of them fund-raising for the next election. The Republican Senate has been squashing this bill for years, and the smart money says 1999 will be no different. Except that McCain will go hoarse trying to make this issue the national hot-button that hes always dreamed it would be. "I am not in the business of identifying individuals or attacking individuals," he said Thursday, struggling to keep the debate on some sort of high ground. "I am attacking a system. I am attacking a system that has to be fixed." Added partner Feingold: "This is not only a crucial issue to the health and future of Congress, but also for democracy itself."

"Itll go down," says Dickerson. "Itll go down, and itll be good for McCains campaign." But probably not good enough $9.3 million, which was McCains hard-money fund-raising total as of Friday, just doesnt buy as many votes as it used to.

Republicans Pillory McCain in Debate Over Soft Money The New York Times

Campaign Finance Reform v. Big Bucks: How They'll Play in 2000

Keep up with the Senate debate on McCain's Site for the Issue or CNN AllPolitics