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McCain was particularly incensed by the bald-faced way the White House reneged on their agreement. "They flat-out broke their word," he told me. "We usually do business in Washington with a handshake. From now on, that will be very hard to do with them. I'll have to question the sincerity of any promises they make."

The senator also decried the shameless way the White House tried to collect PR points by hopping on the reform bandwagon and then doing everything in its power to ensure that the bandwagon wasn't going anywhere. "While the administration wanted to share in the widespread public approval of campaign finance reform by having the president sign the legislation into law," McCain said, "he's cooperating behind the scenes with opponents of the law in Congress and on the commission to weaken it as much as possible." If there is a standard M.O. in this White House, this is it.

As a result, McCain predicts that the next few years will bring a persistent rash of new scandals stemming from the ongoing flood of money into the political process. "It's inevitable," he told me. "More money mixed with more loopholes will lead to more paybacks like the one Eli Lilly was given in the Homeland Security Bill. But politicians have become completely addicted to money, so trying to change the system is like trying to take heroin from a heroin addict."