Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) likes to joke that the campaign-finance reform measure that bears his name is so well-known that a large part of the country thinks his first name is "McCain." As it turns out, that may not be a problem anymore -- McCain has given up on campaign-finance reform because it may interfere with his presidential campaign.

The quartet of lawmakers behind every major federal campaign finance restriction in the past decade is suddenly missing one of its members.

The elided surnames of the four men, "McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan," have become synonymous with so-called campaign finance reform, but Senator McCain, a Republican of Arizona, is conspicuously absent from the latest effort.

Kevin Drum responded, "Can we start keeping score on the number of positions that Mr. Straight Talk has abandoned now that he thinks he has a serious shot at the presidency?"

Unfortunately, it's quite a long list.

-- Guest Post by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report