Jumping To Conclusions

Who woulda thunk that campaign finance "reform" would turn into a partisan weapon?

Then again, who would have thought that campaign finance "reform" would turn into a tool for corrupt politicians to enrich themselves at the public expense? Amusing is the New York Times' feigned naivete:

It was a far cry from what the reformers envisioned in 1996. Within a year, the new measures were credited with increasing the number of parties competing for power, and with helping the opposition win control of the lower house of Congress. Three years after that, a plain-talking politician named Vicente Fox was elected Mexico's first opposition president.

But the recent videotapes have brought the new system's drawbacks into focus. In a nation where more than half of all people live in poverty, Mexico's political system is the most expensive in Latin America. And the measures that opened the system to new parties also opened it to new capers.