If Washington, D.C., were a stormy heath, Senator John McCain would be King Lear, raging at what everyone else is doing to his campaign-finance reform.

Alas, King John. No sooner had he bludgeoned enough of his colleagues into passing his epic, change-the-world bill than the gods began conspiring against him. The nefarious Federal Election Committee (FEC) isn't writing tough enough rules. Fie! Both Democrats and Republicans are behaving like politicians and looking for loopholes to continue raising money. A pox on both their houses! Opponents even had the temerity to throw the legislation to the courts, which could declare chunks of it unconstitutional. What fools these mortals be! (Oops, wrong play.)

This ranting might be merely melodramatic were it not for the fact that Mr. McCain still holds significant sway in his Beltway media kingdom. And he's now made it clear that getting his reform passed wasn't enough: He plans to hold Congress and President Bush hostage until they agree to help him "fix" his own reform's ambiguities and failings.

The main source of Mr. McCain's apoplexy is the six-man, bipartisan FEC. It's the FEC's job to translate election laws into regulations, and that's exactly what it did last month with McCain-Feingold. Apparently, however, nobody informed that body of its moral obligation to write the rules exactly as Mr. McCain had envisioned. The resulting rules, which allow for a smidgeon of flexibility in fund-raising, set the Arizonan to wailing that the FEC had undermined the "heart and soul" of his law.

What to do with a pesky institution that won't roll over on command? Mr. McCain has said he'll sue to overturn the FEC's decision. He'll also use an arcane Congressional procedure to attempt to invalidate the regulations. And in case neither of those work, he'll introduce legislation that would abolish the FEC in its present form and replace it with a political police force more in keeping with his own views limiting free speech.

The only problem is that eradicating disagreeable federal bodies can take time, and Mr. McCain doesn't have it. Which brings us to the hostage-taking. In a letter to Senate leaders, Mr. McCain declared he would block all of Mr. Bush's nominations unless he gets a new person, of his choosing, on the FEC by August.

Democratic Commissioner Karl Sandstrom's term has run over, and, as it happens, he also had the nerve to vote with the three Commission Republicans for some of the looser definitions of McCain-Feingold. (Et tu, Sandstrom?). And so Mr. McCain is demanding the President replace him with election-law stalwart Ellen Weintraub.

Suffice it to say, this plot comes at an awkward time. Several weeks ago Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had finally shown some willingness to process more of Mr. Bush's long-delayed nominees. There aren't many days left in this Congress. Mr. Daschle and Minority Leader Trent Lott yesterday suggested they'd move ahead anyway, but Mr. McCain storms on.

King Lear fell victim to his own tragic flaws, and we can't help but think Mr. McCain really is starting to bear some resemblance. With his military record and public standing, the Arizona Senator could be Mr. Bush's chief Congressional war counsel, someone able to teach and lead Americans on national security.

Instead, he's sublet the bulk of his influence and reputation to Common Cause and the media elite in their eternal quest to bar money from politics, also known as trying to keep water from rushing downhill. Mr. McCain may still get favorable media reviews, but to what end? His performance is bound to end in tragedy.

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