For Campaign Finance Laws That Work, Look Abroad Bound by a Supreme Court Decision That Equates Spending with Speech, the US Shies Away from Real Reform

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CAMPAIGN finance reform has become like a rabbit-in-the-hat magic trick. Now you see it, now you don't. And even when you see it, it seems too fake to believe.

Tucked away deep inside President Clinton's 81-minute long State of the Un-ion address, among a long list of to-dos and not-to-dos for 1995, was the usual call for campaign finance reform.

Despite two decades of wrangling and public disgust, the current "state of the art" is an ineffectual hodgepodge of restrictions on the amount of donations from individuals, corporations, and political action committees. Republicans and Democrats alike have eluded the best of intentions with loopholes, "soft money" …