Via a USAT op/ed (Once again, big donors find new ways to skirt the rules):

Trying to control the flow of money corrupting politics is a lot like trying to contain flooding on the Mississippi. Dikes can channel the torrent. But when there’s a downpour, the river will keep on coming, breaking through at the point of least resistance.

So it has gone in this presidential campaign. The walls erected by the last set of political engineers, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., will largely have achieved their purpose: slowing the flow of illegal contributions %u2014 sometimes seven-figure checks %u2014 to political parties. But by the time the last vote is counted, a record $3.9 billion will have been showered on this year’s campaigns for president and Congress, delivered through diverted means.

That number, projected last Thursday by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan monitoring group, is up 30% from four years ago. And that’s conservative. Lax disclosure rules mask the scale of special-interest involvement.

Hmm, where have you all heard that before?

Of course, the author’s solution is public financing, which I wholly oppose, but at least there is agreement on the fact that the current set of rules is an utter failure.