Derail These Fundraisers

[No Exit]

Derail These Fundraisers

By Ruth Marcus

Monday, January 9, 2006

"All Aboard for Joe Barton's 2006 Texas Train Ride," the invitation reads. It is oversized and glossy, printed on the kind of heavy stock that sends the message: This is a Major Event.

If you don't know who Joe Barton is, if you can't imagine why you'd want to pay several thousand dollars for the privilege of playing Texas Hold 'Em with him en route from Fort Worth to San Antonio, as the invitation promises, then -- it's safe to deduce -- you don't make your living as a Washington lobbyist. For Barton is not only the Republican congressman from the Sixth District of Texas. He is -- more to the point for those who are anteing up for his weekend-long fundraiser this month, and as the invitation helpfully points out on its cover page -- "Chairman Joe Barton."

Chairman, that is, of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has dominion over everything from health care and pharmaceuticals to broadcasters, from cable and telephone companies to energy policy and environmental protection. If you are a lobbyist offered the chance to spend some quality time with Joe Barton ("During the ride, we'll have lots of time to talk," the invitation notes with the subtlety characteristic of these missives), chances are you'll think about getting on board. Or, as Barton put it in the invitation, "This is going to be a hot ticket!" Indeed, it is, even at the sticker-shock price of $2,000 per individual, $5,000 per political action committee -- hotel rooms not included. As of Friday afternoon, 132 attendees had signed up -- mostly from what's commonly referred to as the PAC community, as if they had a unifying belief in something beyond the efficacy of campaign checks.

I write about the Barton fundraiser not to single out the chairman -- though you could question the tastefulness of an event that features an after-hours tour of the Alamo, "shrine of Texas liberty," to help harvest campaign checks. Indeed, what's noteworthy about the event is, in part, its disturbing ordinariness. Lawmakers with enough clout and party committees have these sorts of getaways all the time: ski weekends in Vail, summer jaunts to Nantucket, Super Bowl outings, golf tournaments with this or that committee chair.

(snip)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801162.html

If only Mark Twain were here when we need him.