Campaign Finance/Fair Elections 
A campaign-finance bill that doesn't pass muster
George Will trots out tired old arguments against Fair Elections-style legislation and continues the de-former freak out over disclosure.

Voters will reconsider Clean Elections statute
The lead paragraph says it all: "Arizona business are going to get a chance next year to kill the system of public financing of elections that they were unsuccessful at thwarting more than a dozen years ago."

Disclosure of political spending: asked and answered
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy has a good response to criticism of Obama's planned executive order
- And here's a release from Public Citizen: http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3327
- And Fred Wertheimer on the Chamber's "Alice in Wonderland" approach to campaign finance: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fred-wertheimer/absurd-attacks-by-chamber_b_854540.html
- And two dozen Senate GOPers sent a letter opposing the president's plan: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/158021-senate-republicans-blast-draft-obama-order-requiring-contractors-to-reveal-political-contributions

Maxine Waters's ethics case going nowhere
"Five months after her ethics trial was postponed and the investigation reopened, the ethics case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) remains in limbo."

Congress/2012
Swiped: Banks, merchants, and why Washington doesn't work for you
A really good read over the battle for credit card swipe fees--and the big money behind it. "The swipe fee debate, as mundane as it may appear, is emblematic of how Washington works today...There are, to be sure, a variety of reasons that Congress is zombified, but one of the least understood explanations is also one of the simplest: The city is too busy refereeing disputes between major corporate interest groups."

DCCC to hit John Boehner with "R-Oil" wedding
Heh. The DCCC is up with a new website, http://www.roilwedding.com/ to "celebrate the sacred and lasting union between the Republican Party and Big Oil."

President heads to New York to try to thaw Wall Street donors
President Obama held three fundraisers in NYC last night

Companies lobbying for tax holiday on overseas money
"More than two dozen major companies and business groups — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and technology giants Apple, Google and Microsoft — have joined together under the banner of the 'Win America Campaign' to push for a one-time tax holiday on overseas profits."
 
Arizona Speaker Kirk Adams moves toward Congressional bid
Arizona Speaker Kirk Adams, one of the architects of the Clean Elections repeal legislation passed last week, is running for Congress.

Watchdog: Only Rational Explanation for Oil Subsidies is our Irrational Campaign Finance System
Our comment on Exxon's announcement of $11 billion in profits in the first quarter
- And here's a backgrounder on oil money so far this year, and in 2010: http://publicampaign.org/pressroom/2011/04/27/backgrounder-big-oils-campaign-cash.

Norm Coleman has some questions to answer
From our blog: Norm Coleman should have to answer some questions about the contact he'll have with the new members of Congress he helped to elect as CEO of American Action Network.