"Reform" of Public Funding Rears its Head - But Where is Sen. McCain?

A bill has been introduced in Congress to "repair" the public funding system for presidential campaigns. The sponsors are the usual, Representatives Shays and Meehan and Senators Feingold and --- Hey, wait a minute - where is Senator McCain?

That's right, Senator McCain has not signed on to this latest bid to expand the public funding system of presidential campaigns. According the the New York Sun, it's just politics. Senator McCain probably doesn't plan to take public funds in his 2008 presidential run, figuring he can do better raising money privately. As Meredith McGeehee of the pro-public funding Campaign Finance Institute puts it, "He does not want to be caught in a position where he can be accused, rightly or wrongly, of hypocrisy." Meredith, I'm afraid that that train has already left the platform. And then some. Sorry.

Meanwhile, in the same article, John Samples of the Cato Institute opines that Senator McCain doesn't want to alientate GOP conservatives he'll need to get the nomination, and who hate public funding of campaigns as much as they hate the restrictions on advertising that were included in McCain-Feingold, the 2002 law that - tee hee - cleaned up politics.

Some criticism of the proposal can be found, here, here, here, and here.