Apparently, U.S. Senate Democrats cannot be bothered to hold a vote just yet on the Disclose Act until after they attend a lavish fundraiser in New York for their beleaguered party. Ben Smith has the story in the Politico. The whole idea of the legislation is to “get the money out of politics” proponents frequently say. The details here are worth reviewing:
Disclose Vote will Wait for High Dollar Fundraiser – By Ben Smith
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just scheduled a vote on the DISCLOSE Act, which would force donors to publish their involvement in political ad campaigns, for Thursday.
Why not tomorrow, you might ask? Because there are no votes in the Senate scheduled for tomorrow. And that may be, in part, because there’s something else going on tomorrow: A big New York fundraiser for the Senate Democrats.
“I would be honored if you would join me for a very special reception with President Barack Obama on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 in New York. We have a limited numbers of tickets available to our general reception. If you would like to join us, please contact …[redacted]@dscc.org.”
The event has prices raising up to $15,200, but a mere $2,500 contributed or raised buys you access to a “VIP reception with members of Congress.” The money goes to the House Senate Victory Fund, which splits its recepts between the DSCC and the DCCC.
“An individual can contribute as much as $60,800 per calendar year to the House Senate Victory Fund,” the invitation helpfully notes. (These donations will, it’s worth noting, be disclosed.)
An thhen, it’s back to D.C. to get all that big money out of politics.
The source who sent this one over puts it in the “you can’t make this up category.”
