Primaries may be seeing record turnouts and voter registration drives may be going full tilt, but inside congressional and presidential campaigns alike a sustained efforts is underway to lock up the same big money from the same power players which makes you wonder if the debate's ever going to change.

It's not that I begrudge a guy an urge to spend time in the land of gouda and windmills but tell me it doesn't look a mite suspicious when Roland Arnall dumps millions into the election of George W. Bush then winds up Ambassador to The Netherlands?

The Democratic presidential field has been at each other's throats of late over how much they're taking in campaign contributions from private equity fund and hedge fund managers (particularly as the subprime storm rages on). Hedge fund money is just the latest campaign cash seam to be tapped, and quite a lucrative one it is considering the latest studies showing that the wage gap is widening to the point that CEOs look like paupers next to the Wall Street boys and girls.

You may recall this letter from Public Campaign’s Nick Nyhart and Common Cause’s Chellie Pingree that appeared in The Hill touting the benefits of Clean Elections in opening the political process to more Americans. Here’s what they said: A democracy should be about all of us and not just those who can afford to write huge checks. […]To submit that the person with the largest pile of thousand-dollar checks is the anointed winner of some back-room “popularity contest” as a good way to elect our officials is irresponsible and just plain wrong. It’s time to make elections about voters, not campaign donors, and Clean Elections is the common-sense solution that will do just that.

Friday humor from the BorowitzReport.com:RETURNED ABRAMOFF DONATIONS ERASE NATIONAL DEBTLawmakers Scramble To Shed Trillions in Tainted CashPoliticians in Washington hurried today to dump trillions of dollars worth of campaign donations from d...

File under hmmmmmm...This cut-and-paste from Federal Election Commission records from Daily DeLay reader BK: ABRAMOFF, JACKWASHINGTON,DC 20006ELECTRIC BOAT/DESIGNER4/30/2001$250Simmons, RobNow, Jack Abramoff was a lot of things to a lot of pe...