Tough issues remain.
The Bush signature, never a sure thing, seems iffier now that we know the bill won't include a provision for which he campaigned. It was a most revealing moment for both sides, stripping away competing declarations of high principle to reveal a cold battle of power politics. All 50 Democrats in the Senate voted to kill the amendment, thereby underlining their party's dependence on organized labor. And nearly all of the 31 Republican votes for it came from opponents of the reform movement, men and women who had no intention of supporting McCain-Feingold with or without the amendment. At the same time, the episode helped confirm the worldview of Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the status quo's leading defender.