Both national party committees spend big chunks on fancy meals, hotels, travel

[Mari333]

Spending reports at the Federal Election Commission offer vivid illustrations of luxurious tastes. When RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele and colleagues took several dozen party donors on a retreat last August to Jackson Hole, Wyo., for example, golf and tennis fees were paid, whitewater rafting and trout fishing guides were contracted, and limo drivers and photographers were hired. Flowers worth about $1,300 decorated tables filled with food from three caterers.

Including rooms at the Four Seasons Resort, which promotes itself as offering "pampered adventures," the event appears to have soaked up more than $170,000 from party coffers, the data show.

The Democratic Party racked up a similar bill -- $176,000 -- to cover 14 months of catering at events at the Washington Hilton.

Last month, the RNC spent $260,476 on a single meeting in Hawaii and $14,937 on Dallas Cowboys football tickets, according to its report Tuesday. It also paid hefty cancellation fees to Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons hotels.








http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042005183_pf.html

[dorkulon]

1. Did anyone not know this? nt

[Newest Reality]

2. What is unusual about that?

The whole game functions on OPM, (other people's money). That's the cornerstone of the modern financial paradigm and it is hardly surprising to me.

Once in a while, they get caught overdoing it and not using enough discretion. The people are shocked when the circus displays the act. Then they expect some punitive action which, increasingly, does not make the risk commensurate with the rewards.

[ShortnFiery]

5. Then, if people KNOW. Why do we waste so much energy fighting the GOP when it's

really BIG MONEY that OWNS all three Branches of Our Government?

We should be FIGHTING the big money interests who PAY OFF our next to useless LEGISLATORS in general.

We, the people, should DEMAND election reform 1st. Keep voting incumbents out until we get TRUE reform?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. I'd love to compare numbers after they've been stripped out of the prose and dumped in a spreadsheet

I'd volunteer but if my boss caught me working on a spreadsheet he might come to expect that sort of thing.

[pepperbear]

4. brilliant smokescreen, WAPO, right on the heels of stripper-gate..

remind everyone that both sides do it. of course everyone knows this already. We don't want to draw too much attention to the GOP, so let's run an article about the non partisanship of extravagence.

That is my cynical take on this article.

[ShortnFiery]

6. The GOP is not our only enemy and the pissant teabaggers are fun to trash but

are hardly a threat to our nation. :shrug:

[lostnfound]

7. +50 nt

[petronius]

8. Not only that, the comparison is between a luxury retreat (long weekend?) and

14 months worth of catering in DC. No mention of the number of people who were fed/entertained by the DNC...

[Demoiselle]

10. Exactly right, Petronius. !4 months worth of expenses versus a 3 day weekend.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. That's why I wished for a spreadsheet upthread. The story mixes apples and oranges.

Gives cover for yet more 'both sides do it' reports, as happened on Morning Joe this morning (this on the heels of the Joan Walsh dustup).

[Qutzupalotl]

9. But some expenses are "fancier" than others.

:rofl: