Editorial: U.S. at a crossroads on campaign reform

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 8:31 a.m.

Within a week the Senate will enter a period of maximum opportunity for campaign finance reform. At long last there is to be a full debate, free of filibuster threats, on the McCain-Feingold bill banning soft money and imposing other fund-raising controls. But the debate will also be fraught with peril. Though the bill has long had the full support of Senate Democrats, some of them are suddenly developing misgivings now that its enactment might actually take place.

The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, has been effective in holding the Democrats together for campaign finance reform. Now that victory is within sight, he needs to rally his troops and tell them not to falter. In 1993, the last time there was such an opportunity, some Democrats advised the newly elected president, Bill Clinton, that reform should not be a top priority. It was bad advice, and it ushered in a period of terrible excesses by Democrats and Republicans alike. The coming debate will serve as one of Daschle's biggest challenges to date. But if he and the Democrats can meet it, they will long be remembered for rising to the occasion and putting the nation's interest first.

-- New York Times