It's a worthy cause: removing special interests, giving a voice back to the people, etc. etc. However, the rules and regulations that are in place, such as the limit on donations to $2300, can hamper campaigns in need of cash. Of course, this rule is established for a very simple reason: anyone contributing large checks to a campaign could be trying to buy political influence. So, nowadays, you can't simply walk into a campaign offers and drop off a $70,000 check.

Sen. John McCain raised $62.3 million for his presidential bid in the second quarter in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, according to campaign-finance reports filed Tuesday night.

The campaign gathered most of the money using an unprecedented system that allows it to collect checks as large as $70,000 from an individual by parsing the money between the campaign, the national party and state committees in four states. That fund raised $41.2 million in the three-month period.

OK, so you can actually walk in to McCain's office with a check 30 times greater than the allowed limit and it will be accepted with a wink and a smile. However, we can assume that this is just for convenience. I mean, those giant checks are expensive to produce and the pen that the donation was written with probably had golden trim and ink taken from the rare Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. I'm sure the next paragraph in the article will clear up any improprieties and establish that McCain, while exploiting a loophole, was still keeping with the spirit of the law.

While President George W. Bush used his fund-raising prowess to raise money for House and Senate candidates in 2004, Sen. McCain seems to be keeping the bulk of the money for himself. About $1 million of the proceeds from the account went to each of the state parties during the quarter, $11 million went to the McCain campaign, and $17 million to the Republican National Committee, which typically focuses exclusively on the presidential race.

The way this works is simple: you take that $70,000 check and throw it into the "McCain Victory Fund". The first 2.3k goes to McCain directly. The next $28.5k goes to the RNC. Then "the battlegrounds" Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado and New Mexico each get ~$10k each. Finally, a little smiley face is drawn next to the donor's name and he gets all the rewards that donors who give $70k are expected to get.

Of course, the issue is... that's a lot of money. Way more than you're supposed to be contributing. Now, it would be one thing if McCain had a long history of skirting campaign finance laws. Then we'd know that this was a political ploy. Because, let's face it: $70k buys a lot more influence than $2.3k, but only if the person being elected knows you've donated $70k and not $2.3k. This "victory fund" allows McCain to track exactly who donated to him directly, in his name for his election, and not to the GOP at large. It's much easier to thank those who have donated above and beyond (in a very literal sense) when you don't have to coordinate donor lists from dozens of sources and calculate exactly how much you should thank them.

If you look at the date stamps on these links, you'll notice this plan was in place well before Obama opted out. While railing on Obama for not limiting himself to the public financing rules, McCain's plan for getting around those rules was already in place.

The task at hand for Democrats is to match McCain's shenanigans with (honest) fundraising of our own. Obama raised about 300 million during the primary contests. Now, for the general election, he'll have to exceed his primary fundraising... in a third of the time. Not to mention the very important downticket races that, while the GOP focuses all the funds on the White House, may lead to a 60-vote Democratic Senate. So, go find a candidate (lots of good ones out there, including the guy at the top) and donate. Please?