Even if the Supreme Court has started treating the cash of wealthy corporations and special-interest groups as free speech, there are responsible ways to put brakes on a runaway money train that promises to generate little in the way of voter turnout or issue elucidation.

The Federal Election Commission, normally weighted with machine loyalists from the two parties, has to become more of an enforcer of the law than an enabler of law-evaders. It must crack down harder on such blatant abusers as the noxious "527 committees" of 2004 that tapped illegal fat-cat donations to pass off bare-knuckle partisan operations as tax-exempt initiatives.

The commission did finally penalize prominent malefactors like the Republicans' Swift boat attackers and the Democrats' anti-Bush drive, called America Coming Together. But this came almost four years after initial complaints -- and the fines amount to just 1 or 2 cents per dollar for the hundreds of millions spent illegally by these shadow-party operatives. Treating subverters of fair elections as political jaywalkers can only encourage a fresh round of schemers next year. The commission needs to issue a broadside warning right now that its penalties will be far steeper and more timely and will target principals, not just their umbrella groups.

The measure would take effect in 2012, so there's no good reason why the current array of presidential candidates -- some of them already burned by tainted fat-cat donors -- should not join Senator Barack Obama in endorsing this step back toward campaign sanity.