The GOP has shown itself to be little different from the democrat party when it comes to paying scant attention to 2010 midterm election results and the messages that were sent that day by American voters (most prominently, by Independents, who control your election outcomes). Proof positive comes from this week's news that republican House freshmen and other members plan a Big To-Do fundraiser tonight at DC's swanky W Hotel (three pictures above). Today's Politico.com put it this way:"With Republican leaders anxious to set an austere tone for their ascendance into the House majority this week, the lavish fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday night at a trendy Washington hotel to benefit a dozen GOP freshmen is not exactly the populist image leaders are anxious to project."
And "lavish" is certainly the right word. Representing business-as-usual in DC, the big event is designed to connect House GOP members with special interests, lobbyists and political action committee members -- all of whom must buck up $2,500 just to get their foot in the door. And if any of them are ready to cough up a cool $50,000, then they get the special treatment from the GOP in the W Hotel's "VIP Suite." They're even bringing in country music star LeAnn Rimes to croon for all of the special interests' entertainment.
Having called Barack Obama a "chickenshit" in recent days (which he is), please allow me to take today's opportunity to also label as a chickenshit new House Speaker John "Party Time" Boehner and new House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (first picture above). Despite his name being featured on the invitation for tonight's huge event, Boehner now (in the face of bad pub) is weaseling out of attending. Similarly, Cantor won't say if he's attending, choosing instead to hedge his bets and to gauge what kind of press this event receives today.
The (lack of) brains behind this plush event appears to rest with incoming House member Jeff Denham of California (the rather slimy-looking dude in the second picture above). He has a growing reputation as a big rainmaker, and his camp is trying to justify tonight's event as just another necessary fundraising event. My foot.
Instead, it appears to me that this event has little to do with raising money, and has everything to do with (1) schmoozing with special interests and (2) just having a Big Party, damn it! As one political consultant told Politico, the amount of money this ritzy event will raise is highly questionable given the high overhead of throwing the event in the first place:
"Another fundraising consultant called [tonight's] event 'a nightmare' and said 'with the high overhead associated with putting on the event and the amount of money it could raise, we just didn’t think it was worth it.' "
So much for fiscal responsibility. So much for an end to tone deafness. So much for eschewing the beltway disconnect. It looks like a lot of these GOP freshmen have been indoctrinated into "business as usual" in DC even before taking their new seats in the House!
"Another fundraising consultant called [tonight's] event 'a nightmare' and said 'with the high overhead associated with putting on the event and the amount of money it could raise, we just didn’t think it was worth it.' "
So much for fiscal responsibility. So much for an end to tone deafness. So much for eschewing the beltway disconnect. It looks like a lot of these GOP freshmen have been indoctrinated into "business as usual" in DC even before taking their new seats in the House!
But that's OK. We Independents in recent years have grown very used to having to kick a bunch of sorry politicians' asses to the curb come election time, regardless of party. I don't see 2012 being any different.
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