A perfect storm for political reform.

• Author: Glastris, Paul
• Position: Editor's Note

How John McCain, a man widely disliked by many in his own party, became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is still a bit of a mystery to me. His reputation for heroism in Vietnam certainly helped. So too did his advocacy of the surge. That he faced no conservative competitor who could unify the base was surely a major factor. And Republicans do traditionally nominate the candidate who is "next in line." (McCain came in second in the 2000 primaries.)

Regardless of how it happened, the fact is that the GOP has done something unusual and potentially important: it has placed a reformer at the top of its ticket. McCain's most famous legislative accomplishment, one movement conservatives have never forgiven him for, is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, otherwise known as the McCain-Feingold law, which banned soft-money contributions to political parties. He also spearheaded investigations of the connections between corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and bigwigs in his own party. He has long railed against congressional abuse of earmarks, infuriating colleagues on both sides of the aisle. And in one of the central fronts in the war over presidential power, the use of torture, McCain sided with the rule of law and the Constitution, not the Bush White House.

The reason this is such a big deal is that Republicans almost never nominate reformers for president. The last time they did so was in 1928, and even then, the candidate they chose, Herbert Hoover, was known mostly for noncontroversial government efficiency-type measures. You have to go all the way back to the trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt to find a GOP candidate willing to break some political china in the name of reform.

Democrats have been more prone to choose process-reformminded candidates (think McGovern, Carter, and Dukakis). This year, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fit that mold, though to different degrees. Both promise to put a lid on no-bid contracting. Both favor public financing of congressional campaigns, the holy grail of campaign finance reformers. Hillary has the more fleshed-out position on reforming the voting process (paper records of every vote, etc.). But she has not put reform of Washington at the center of her rhetoric the way Obama has done. Obama also has the stronger reform record, having co authored a major overhaul of lobbying rules and a law mandating that all federal grants and contracts be listed in easily searchable Internet databases.

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