There’s a reason why the punditocracy is skeptical about the White House charge about foreign money buying the mid-term elections. Not because it isn’t possible. (Think Progress just found the US Chamber of Commerce took in almost $1 million in foreign cash.) And not because everyone is happy with undisclosed donors spending millions on races across the country.

But because it looks like the Democrats are playing the refs in a game where the refs don’t carry a whistle. Even clear breaches of campaign finance laws only tend to get fixed after voters have pulled the lever. At a time of pressing needs in the economy and among Democratic candidates, the debate seems too little, too late.

Having said that, the people who care passionately about campaign finance breaches and anonymous donors are the Democratic base and independent voters who dislike both parties. So this isn’t entirely misguided as a strategy, as I explain here at the Daily Beast. A fractional change in Democratic turnout could mean the difference between a Republican majority of a few seats, or one well into the double digits.

Right now, Democrats seem to be edging closer in several Senate races, making it increasingly improbable that they will lose control there. The New York Times’s Nate Silver has a good overview of those trends. Without Washington state, the GOP can’t really make it to a majority in the Senate. Especially with West Virginia showing some improvement for Joe Manchin.

But there are three weeks to go. Plenty can change.