EDITORIAL : DEAD HORSE WALKING; CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM WILL NEVER GET PASSED, BUT VOTERS CAN STILL SEND A MESSAGE.

JOHN McCain - like Granny Haddock - has miles and miles and miles to go before he sleeps.

Both are pushing campaign finance reform. Neither has a chance of succeeding, although there is hope on another front.

Doris ``Granny D'' Haddock is the 89-year-old retired shoe company secretary from southern New Hampshire who embarked on a cross-country mission from Pasadena on New Year's Day for campaign finance reform.

McCain is the Republican Senator from Arizona running for president and flogging the dead horse called Not In This Lifetime, or campaign finance reform.

With the announcement last week that undeclared presidential GOP front-runner Gov. George W. Bush had raised a record-shattering $36.2 million, it's clear the race for the nomination is already over.

Barring a cataclysmic announcement - such as the Texas governor fathered a tennis phenom like Martina Hingis, or that the Mexican Mafia has supplied all his campaign money - the 2000 presidential race has been decided, at least the pundits say so.

Too bad. McCain has a lot going for him.

Honesty. A true hero's background. Intelligence. Clear thinking. Plain speaking. Sort of a Republican Harry Truman.

But the special interests don't want a plain-speaking, intelligent, clear-thinking, honest candidate or a real campaign of beliefs and issues.

They're pouring all their money into just one GOP choice - Bush.

Unless voters decide to derail the runaway money train, the money will control who you get to vote for, will control the message, will control how voters are suppose to think.

On the Democratic side, the money machine is hedging its bets between Bill Bradley, who raised $11.5 million through the first half of 1999, and Vice President Al Gore, who collected $18.5 million.

Money is the only thing that talks, the only thing that gets noticed, the only thing the politicians care about.

It's as true locally as it is nationally.

Rep. James E. Rogan, R-Pasadena, boasted last week he has become the top fund-raiser in the House, pulling in more than $1 million since January.

But then, Americans have a way of sifting through the cash and cutting to the bottom line.

If it were just about wealth, Michael Huffington would be the current senator from California.

Ross Perot would be president, tinkering with the government machine by changing the oil and kicking the tires.

And Al Checchi would be flying high as governor.

In other words, the politicians, by playing up the money over the message, want voters to believe they've sold the high and mighty on their viability, and they want you, the little guy, to follow along quietly like sheep.

It's a gimmick.

And it doesn't have to work. All it takes are sharp voters willing to listen and reserve judgment until everyone has a chance to speak.