Parsing Support for Campaign Finance Reform

The AP reports that McCain scolds Obama on campaign funds

“If Senator Obama goes back on his commitment to the American people, then obviously we’d have to rethink our position,” McCain said. “Our whole agreement was that we would take public financing if he made that commitment as well. And he signed a piece of paper, I’m told, that made that commitment.”

To me this is deceptive. It implies that Obama is going back on his word when a decision has not been made. This further irks me because McCain, who is known for his past leadership on Campaign Finance, is conspicuously missing from the list of co-sponsors of the “Fair Elections Now Act” that would extent the same kinds of public finance of campaign methods to Congress that he championed in his home state of Arizona.

Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL]
Sen. Barbara Boxer [D-CA]
Sen. Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]
Sen. Thomas Carper [D-DE]
Sen. Russell Feingold [D-WI]
Sen. Thomas Harkin [D-IA]
Sen. Edward Kennedy [D-MA]
Sen. Claire McCaskill [D-MO]
Sen. Barack Obama [D-IL]
Sen. Arlen Specter [R-PA]

While we’re at it, why is Senator Clinton not a co-sponsor?