Yet More Evidence that Campaign Finance "Reform" Doesn't Work

Yahoo! News - 'Soft money' may help GOP launch wider attack on Kerry

After holding back for months, Republican political operatives say they will compete with Democrats in raising and spending millions of dollars in unregulated "soft money" on this year's presidential election.

[...]

Most activity by independent political groups - known as "527s" for the section of tax law under which they are organized - has been among Democrats. That has helped to counter Bush's campaign fundraising advantage. While the Bush and Kerry campaigns are limited in what they can collect, the outside groups can take multimillion-dollar donations from wealthy partisans such as financier George Soros.

If the FEC fails to enact regulations, "it will be abundantly clear that 527s are going to play a major role in the election," Hirschmann said. "We do not want to see Soros and the unions and the liberal Democrat 527s go unanswered."

*sigh* When will legislators learn that they can't stop money from flowing into politics? If companies that sell hamburgers and soda will spend millions and millions annually to get us to buy their products, why is it such a shock that groups and individuals will spend millions and millions to help elect the leader of the free world?

A system that allows unlimited contributions to parties and candidates with full and immediate disclosure on the internet would certainly be a far more transparent system than the one we currently have. And it would have the virtue of leaving the First Amerndment alone.