Garbage In, Garbage Out

The G.O.P. has long treated the United States Congress as a money machine, using it to relieve suckers of their funds and involuntarily bleeding everyone else dry. Two stories serve to illustrate this point.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NARCOCO) is selling its losing candidacies to the highest bidders:

At this point, strategists for the National Republican Congressional Committee have enlisted wealthy candidates to run in at least a dozen competitive Congressional districts nationwide, particularly those where Democrats are finishing their first term and are thus considered most vulnerable. They say more are on the way.

These wealthy Republicans have each already invested $100,000 to $1 million of their own money to finance their campaigns, according to campaign finance disclosure reports and interviews with party strategists. Experts say that is a large amount for this early in the cycle.

...

Self-financed, deep-pocketed Congressional candidates are nothing new for either party, and the Democrats have their own share for 2008. But the Democrats do not have a concerted campaign to find such candidates, they say, while the Republicans describe the recruitment of these candidates as central to their plan for the 2008 elections.

Meanwhile, the G.O.P.'s current crop of congressmen are bailing out to accept corporate cash above the table for a change:

The US News Political Bulletin has learned that Lott will make the announcement today at noon. According to a knowledgeable source, Lott is resigning by the end of the year to avoid new ethics rules that double the amount of time a retired lawmaker must wait before lobbying former colleagues. The former Senate majority leader had contemplated retiring prior to his last election, and is said to be eager to begin his post-Senate career while he is still relatively young.

"Double the amount of time" means two whole years. But you can't expect the Lott-Hastert knocking shop to wait that long; the Congressional Seal condoms have been paid for already.