Reform, maybe

Fifty-one House Republicans showed uncommon courage Monday night by defying party leadership and carrying the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill to victory. Either that, or they showed common cravenness by voting for a crowd-pleasing bill they know doesn’t have a prayer in the Senate.

For now, go with the courage angle. After all, it’s not every day Speaker Newt Gingrich is so thoroughly rebuked and Whip Tom DeLay is left flopping about like a gaffed salmon. Why spoil such a delicious moment with cynicism?

And there’s good reason to believe the stunning 237-186 vote, and the strong Republican defection to the side of rightousness and virtue, was not just for show. The Republicans who stood up for cleaner elections spoke forcefully and eloquently in their behalf. Especially Tennessee Rep. Zack Wamp, hardly a household name until now, who distinguished himself with a stirring call for the House to put its partisanship and addiction to soft money aside and to do the right thing by the public.

But Shays-Meehan, clearly the best reform bill considered by the House, is not yet home free. It still faces significant House obstacles before it could even get to the Senate, where reform has been stalled for the better part of a year.

Those obstacles are the numerous other — and weaker — reform bills still in the hopper, including the so-called Freshman Bill co-sponsored by Maine’s Rep. Tom Allen. Allen deserves credit for that, but he and Rep. John Baldacci, who also supports the Freshman Bill, should now reconsider. Under the arcane rules set up by Gingrich, only the top vote-getter goes to the Senate. Both Maine congressmen voted for Shays-Meehan Monday. If the House is in fact calling the Senate’s bluff, it should play the strongest hand it can.

The House is often described as the more down-to-earth, common-folk chamber of Congress, as opposed to the more elite, aristocratic Senate. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has stymied reform so far on the claim that the American people don’t want it. Now that the House of the people has spoken, Sen. Lott might do well to listen.