Surprise! Firewall between Super PACs and candidates' campaigns doesn't exist

Super PACS aren't allowed to coordinate their activities with political parties, candidates and candidates' political action committees. They can raise as much money as they want and spend it how they want, but no collaboration between them and campaigns.

Which is a joke. Citizens United's big laugh on us. It wasn't bad enough that plutocrats have poured so much money into political campaigns that democracy now teeters on the precipice, with hordes of elected officials at the state and federal levels little better than sock puppets for various businesses, from oil to banking. At least there were limits on how much campaign contributors could supply. Those are still in place for the parties, candidates and regular PACs. But not for Super PACs. The trade-off supposedly being that they remain outside groups. But it's a political charade. Utterly transparent. And everybody in Washington knows it.

There are rules. But they don't keep outside groups and candidates or their managers from talking to each other about hiring decisions, fundraising, messaging and the like, which makes the rules essentially worthless:

'It is like the Wild, Wild, West,' Joseph Sandler, a top campaign lawyer, said, speaking broadly about rules governing outside groups, 'because we have not seen, so far, any pattern of enforcement of the existing rules by the Federal Election Commission to establish some of the guidelines more clearly.' [...]

The line between super PAC stalwarts and candidates has blurred since the Republican presidential primary. Foster Friess, who donated $2.1 million to a super PAC supporting Rick Santorum's presidential bid, traveled with the former Pennsylvania senator's campaign. More recently, Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate whose family has donated $10 million to a super PAC supporting Romney, embraced the former Massachusetts governor after a speech in Jerusalem and attended a closed-door, high-dollar fundraiser for his campaign.

Federal officials even help raise money for these organizations. [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) frequently solicit cash for Majority PAC. The two top Senate Democrats, as well as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the majority whip, have appeared at Majority PAC events across the country this summer.

Nothing in the rules against that. But even if the elbow-rubbing and back-scratching and consulting doesn't amount precisely to what the Federal Election Commission would call "coordination" the reality is obvious.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has said, "We have a horrendous campaign finance system in which Big Money is able to elect the candidates of its choice and defeat those who oppose its agenda." There have always been elements of that in American politics, waxing and waning over time. But it's now worse than ever. The longer the situation continues, the worse it will become. Yet nothing but pockets of opposition have so far formed to fight it. The depth of the perniciousness of this situation has yet to get a full airing anywhere it will do any good. Few politicians are willing to speak out full force against this except the losers. And nobody listens to them.