Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne is onto something. He asserts that "we have reached a true populist moment in American politics." The U.S. Supreme Court majority sniffed last week that the lure of campaign cash has nothing to do with the likelihood of public corruption or undue influence on our institutions and public officials. It's just that corporations have the right to free speech (even without a mention of them in the constitution). And if the result is a torrent of corporate dollars contaminating the political process, which doesn't exactly pass the sniff test as it is, we can all pay homage to the glories of the first amendment.

Maybe the Supremes missed the health care reform stalemate in Congress. Health insurers and HMOs spent nationally more than $126 million in the first half of 2009 alone on campaign contributions and lobbying to fight health care reform. That's a clip of nearly $700,000 per day.

And they undoubtedly glanced over Pennsylvania's recent state budget fiasco. Last year the interests that blocked adequate revenue from reaching the state's coffers were many, but they all had one thing in common: big bucks "invested" politically. Want to tax the natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale? You say it's a no-brainer from a policy perspective. Sorry. Governor Rendell backed away and the legislature ran for cover – maybe next year. The gas industry recently showered state senate leaders with more than $200,000 in campaign contributions and the governor was rewarded, too (all before the fact) .