Even after leaving office, the Clinton administration had a little trouble with Indian tribes.

Back in 1999, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was the focus of an investigation on whether campaign contributions to the Democratic party had influenced an Interior Dept. decision to deny a tribe formal recognition. The "tribe" in question had been seeking to build a casino that would have directly competed with one that made large contributions to the Democratic party. After an independent counsel investigation by Carol Elder Bruce, Babbitt was cleared.

The probe resulted in part from a meeting Babbitt had in July 1995 with an Arizona lawyer who was pressing him to approve the gambling license. Babbitt later acknowledged in Senate testimony that he essentially told a white lie to end the meeting by claiming that Harold Ickes, then White House deputy chief of staff, had told him a decision on the casino needed to be made that day.

In a statement, Bruce said the evidence "would not support a finding of a criminal 'quid pro quo' -- an explicit agreement between any opponent of the casino application and any government official involved in the Hudson decision to perform an official act in exchange for a political contribution."

Well, today the New York Times reports that a former Clinton administration official, Michael Anderson, signed papers giving the Duwamish tribe formal recognition three days after Clinton left office, and back-dated them. And it gets worse.

The report by the Interior Department's inspector general characterized the agency's handling of the Duwamish petition and five others approved at the end of the Clinton administration as "highly unusual." Four were approved by Mr. Anderson's predecessor, Kevin Gover.

In each case, the decision went against recommendations by bureau staff members assigned to determine if the tribes met the criteria for recognition.

According to the story, the Justice Department is refusing to prosecute Anderson for impersonating a federal official. If what this guy did is illegal, and it is, then he should be prosecuted.

Flash-forward to the phony "campaign-finance reform" bill which passed the house last month. There's one group that's got a special status when it comes to the proposed new law.

The bill would ban soft money--unlimited, loosely regulated contributions to national political parties--from all donors, including Indians. But it eases some restrictions on hard money donations--sums that may be given directly to congressional and presidential candidates, as well as parties.

Indian tribes, though, are part of a small category of donors that would not have to abide by an overall cap on these hard money contributions.

As a result, while the typical individual could give the new maximum donation of $2,000 to a relatively small number of federal candidates, tribes could funnel contributions of this size to as many candidates as they want--potentially hundreds.

The Indian (gambling) tribes are like any other business, they spread their money around to both political parties. In fact, John McCain ($-Ariz.) is one of the largest recipients of their largesse.

The system wasn't perfect before. This new law won't fix it.

In the post-campaign finance world, the most powerful force in politics will not be labor unions, special interests or corporations. Those who ruled the American landscape six centuries ago will rule it once again.