And indeed, the Obama and McCain campaigns are already halfway to compliance. The Obama campaign puts the name of every bundler over $50,000 on its website. Occupations, states of residence, and specific amounts raises are missing, however, and the list is not easily accessed from the campaign's homepage. Moreover, the largest category is "over $200,000." Considering that Obama will soon be meeting with fundraisers who bundled over a million for Hillary Clinton, said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer, the $200,000 cap seems "quaint."

John McCain, who has inherited a number of George Bush's fundraisers, also discloses his bundlers. Cities and states of residence are included, but occupations and specific amounts are not. The highest category is "$250,000 or more."

But the good government groups want more. Both the McCain and Obama campaigns have set up joint fundraising accounts with their respective national parties. Currently, a large donor is invited to write a single check to that account, with party staffers distributing the money. Each donor can give $28,500 a year to the DNC or the RNC, and $10,000 more to each individual state party. There is, however, a $65,500 overall cap on the donations given to state and national parties in a each two-year cycle.

That means a single donor can cut a $60,000 check, with $2,300 going to Obama and the rest being distributed around the party at the party's discretion. A bundler with a number of big-money contacts could bring millions and millions of dollars in these large checks. The groups writing to the campaigns today want the names and amounts collected by any such people.

If there were ever two presidential candidates who would take a request like this one seriously, it's the two we have now. Both are among the very small portion of their parties that care about reform, and while they have at times wavered in their commitment to transparent and open government, they are as likely to acquiesce to this request as any politicians in America.