Hillary has just a few weeks to raise $20 million

Failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is $20 million in debt from her campaign. Under the campaign finance laws introduced and passed by GOP presidential candidate John McCain, she only has until the start of the Democratic national convention in Denver to raise money to pay off her loans to the campaign. After that, the most she can draw out is a paltry $250,000.

Hillary did a video to her supporters, asking for bucks, and is hitting up Obama to help out. Obama's campaign cannot directly pay off her debts, under the law, but he can ask his supporters to do it.

Hillary, ranked 68th in seniority among U.S. senators, returns to the Senate tomorrow and Wednesday, for the first time in 17 months as just a regular senator. She and Obama are appearing jointly at a rally Friday in Unity, New Hampshire in their first joint campaign appearance.

Somehow, there is justice in watching those who thumbed their noses at the first amendment and passed the McCain-Feingold "campaign finance reform" bill, having to suffer its consequences. The bill has been a complete failure, driving accountability out of political finances, as many more tens of millions of dollars than before the act, are now funneled unreported through 527 committees such as Move On.org and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, into elections.

The onerous limits and reporting requirements give the candidates themselves less control, and put political speech from the 527 committees less regulated than ever before. McCain has no one to blame but himself for Obama finding it lucrative to go back on his promise to take federal funds for the general election campaign. It is McCain-Feingold that allows and drove Obama to raise the money he has.

It is why McCain will be limited to $87 million in the fall campaign, while Obama is free to spend unlimited hundreds of millions. It serves him right, to stew in his own juices. It's just a shame the rest of the Republican Party has to do it with him.