The McCain campaign is pushing back hard against Barack Obama's proposal to close the so-called "Enron loophole," blaming Bill Clinton for having signed into law:

The McCain [campaign] quickly fired back by noting that the Enron Loophole was supported by many Democrats, including ex-President Bill Clinton, and that McCain had long spoken out against it -- and had voted in 2003 to close the loophole.

"The truth is Barack Obama is following John McCain's lead to close a Wall Street loophole that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton," said campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.

There's a problem with the McCain campaign's response, however. If they are going to attack Bill Clinton for signing the Enron loophole into law, it's only fair to point out that John McCain himself supported its passage in the first place.

The legislation in question is H.R. 4577, which unanimously passed the Senate on December 15, 2000. Clinton signed it into law on December 21 of that year. The Enron loophole itself (H.R. 5660) is actually an amendment to H.R. 4577, which was an appropriations bill for the labor, health, and education departments.

Given the omnibus nature of the legislation, I probably wouldn't have aggressively attacked McCain for supporting passage of the Enron loophole, but now that his campaign is attacking Bill Clinton for signing it into law, it is completely fair game to attack John McCain for putting it on Clinton's desk.

The larger problem for McCain, who has at times supported efforts to close the Enron loophole, is that nobody is more responsible for the loophole becoming law than his national campaign co-chairman and economic adviser, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm.

Obama is pushing for the closure of the so-called "Enron loophole" as part of his plan to lower gas prices. The loophole permits unregulated energy futures trading in electronic markets and is likely a contributing factor in the high price of oil.