Our U.S. senators on opposite sides of the financial limits issue For those who sometimes cast a cynical eye on politicians, the U.S. Senate and Pennsylvania's two members are about to offer a visual feast. I'm talking about ballyhooed efforts to clean up campaign financing, which even the politically blind see as the only path to real reform. The problem is, despite the way the issue's been whipped into a populist frenzy, real reform is a rare animal. Think about it.
Senators are where they are because of finance laws favoring incumbents.
Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, the yin and yang of Republican politics, stand in separate camps. Now optimists might say, well, that's nice, Pennsylvania gets representation on both sides. Democracy at work. But it's also possible Specter has special reasons for loving limits, and Santorum for opposing them. He's proposing yet another constitutional amendment, this one to overturn a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a ban on certain contributions.