This week, the U.S. Senate began debating the highly anticipated McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. It is being challenged by competing bills, such as the Hagel Bill, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

McCain-Feingold is the first such measure to be debated in a quarter century. The last major campaign reform that took place was during the Nixon years, and many today debate whether those reforms went too far or whether they even went far enough.

Not much has changed, for the current bill is being praised by members of both major parties for its attempts to rid politics of soft-money contributions. It has also been chided by both Republicans and Democrats for infringing on the right to free speech.

With both sides heating up, the debate over campaign finance reform has just begun.