Eliza Newlin Carney offers this National Journal column (free access). A snippet: “The obvious reason that public financing is back in vogue is that it;s tough to talk about cleaning up the Washington ethics mess while ignoring political money. It’s all well and good to curtail lobbyist-funded meals and trips, say many on Capitol Hill, but let’s not ignore the hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash that lobbyists raise for candidates.”