Hat tip to my mates at Audit Trail who have pointed out that Sarbanes-Oxley has emerged as an issue in the run-up to the presidential elections.

Over in one corner, we have reports of GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani saying that he wants to change Sarbanes-Oxley, and calling the law "an overreaction" to financial scandals.

There's Mitt Romney pledging to "eliminate cumbersome and unnecessary regulations and bureaucracies that hinder economic growth and job creation. Too often Washington politicians do not consider the negative economic effects of the many regulatory weeds that choke off growth. One of these regulations that must be pruned is Sarbanes-Oxley."

Over in the other corner, we have john edwards with his "Restoring corporate responsibility and rebuilding the middle class" blueprint which seek to put new constraints on corporations that go far beyond Sarbanes-Oxley.

Among his proposals are plans to give shareholders the right to render an advisory vote on executive compensation and call a shareholders' meeting, putting more pressure on institutional investors by forcing them to justify failures to take shareholder action on governance and executive pay issues, while increasing the government's enforcement of conflict-of-interest and negligence charges, and forcing corporations to come clean on their lobbying, political contributions, taxes paid, government contracts and subsidies, environmental impacts and business practices, including their governance structure, the pay and demographics of directors and top officers, conditions in foreign supply chain contractors, and foreign criminal investigations.