[CaptainHaplo]

Sorry Mothballs, thats part of one of the problems in Washington politics - the scratch my back and I'll scratch yours mentality.

However - you do bring up an interesting point - and one I will take the opportunity to address. I have posted about it before - money in politics. I think we need a true reform there. So here goes - I would push for the following campaign finance reforms.

#1 If you can't vote for president - you can't donate to the campaign. ONLY individual people can donate. No PAC money, no foreign money, no union money, no big business money. Its nothing more than buying influence - and it needs to stop.

#2 Limit individual monetary contributions to no more than $1000 per person TOTAL. That means you could give $1000 once - or $500 two times - etc - but you can't donate more than a total of $1000.

#3 Individual contributions of time and ability on a volunteer basis would not be limited. Meaning if you wanted to spend hours every day putting out signs you could - but you would volunteer that time. If you were a database person and wanted to volunteer to help administer the necessary record keeping for the contributions - that would also not be limited. People should have the right to give of their time and talents without limit.

#4 No "matching funds" from the US Government. Why should you as a taxpayer have to help fund my campaign (or anyone else's) that you don't agree with???

#5 Full and total disclosure of where campaign funds originate and where they are spent, to be made available to the public at large every thirty days for the month preceeding. (November 30th you get all of the records for the month of October.)

#6 The politician running cannot use moer than $10,000 of his own money for his campaign. This would be his own startup funds and everything else would need to be from supporters.

#7 No organization (since organizations can't vote) should be running adds on behalf of, or against, a candidate. Again - if the GROUP doesn't get a vote, the individuals could better use their energy being involved for the person they support.

These seven simple, common sense steps would go very far to removing the corruption and pay for play workings of Washington. I also am committed to abiding by these standards if I choose to run.