Senator McCain, who challenged George W Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in spring 2000, has banged on about the need to curb the influence of money in US politics since anybody cares to remember. He has sponsored numerous bills and amendments on the money issue and it was the centrepiece to his challenge to Bush. But where all McCain's previous efforts failed, this time it looks like he will be more successful. And if the Senate and the House approve some version of his bill, it will be difficult for President Bush to veto such an apparently popular measure. Campaign finance reform is now the issue of concern among many national legislators.
Every politician is keen to be associated with campaign finance reform.
But such enthusiasm doesn't mean that all politicians are genuinely keen to see significant sums of money taken out of US politics. Even McCain's closest friend and ally in the Senate proposed an entirely different set of reforms than the ones championed by the bill's sponsors. And the constant manoeuvring showed that many politicians were more concerned to be seen to be on the right side of the bill than they were about whether the reforms finally entered into law. Many Democrats have long championed campaign finance reform - but only when the measures had zero chance of becoming law. In the recent debate, when success is suddenly more likely, Democrats have started to worry that they will suffer disproportionately by a ban on soft money.