October 23, 2002

2:22 PM

It's fun to watch your tax dollars put politicians in office."Cheney has been the White House road warrior this year, hauling in more than $22 million for Republicans in 74 campaign appearances"
posted by the fire you left me (14 comments total)

Gore was tarnished by his image as an insatiable fund-raiser, but no such taint has touched Cheney, Goldstein said.

Where's that gosh-darn liberal media bias when you need it?
posted by RylandDotNet at 2:30 PM on October 23, 2002

I thought not gettin' touched by a dude's taint was a good thing? especially a taint as old and no doubt saggy as Cheney's.
posted by mcsweetie at 2:38 PM on October 23, 2002

Now don't forget us out in California!

We've got eGray
posted by acutetype at 2:40 PM on October 23, 2002

Democrats have charged the Bush White House is billing taxpayers inappropriately for its political travels. The White House denies that.
Okay, so who did pay for all the political travels taken by Air Force 1 and 2? I'd like to see the bookkeeping on that one. Of course the GAO would have to sue for their release and the White House wouldn't comply anyway.
posted by elwoodwiles at 2:52 PM on October 23, 2002

Don't know why people are making this out to be a partisan deal. It's more of a politician soft of deal. Both sides take advantage of taxpayers to fund their campaign fundraising trips. It's just one of the perks of being President.
posted by gyc at 3:07 PM on October 23, 2002

no, what's REALLY fun is watching your tax dollars REMOVE politicians from office. [sigh] we haven't really had any fun since nixon...
posted by quonsar at 3:12 PM on October 23, 2002

Don't know why people are making this out to be a partisan deal. It's more of a politician soft of deal. Both sides take advantage of taxpayers to fund their campaign fundraising trips. It's just one of the perks of being President.[gyc]

It's not that they do it that bothers people. It's that nobody seems to pay this kind of attention to it when the Republicans do it.
posted by originalname37 at 3:30 PM on October 23, 2002

Imagine how much he could pull in if he could leave the Undisclosed Location more often....
posted by rushmc at 3:41 PM on October 23, 2002

"Bush and Cheney have clearly embraced the role of chief fund-raisers for their party, much the way Clinton and Gore did," Weiss said. Clinton raised $50 million in the first midterm election of his presidency.

Well, OK, we know it's not a partisan thing. Maybe we can get on to discussing whether it's a good or bad thing period.

My take: bad. I'm glad Cheney can get his intelligence briefs on the plane. When you're President or VP I'm sure you can set up your job much the way you like. But I don't buy for a second the idea that this doesn't take time and focus away from their jobs. I don't like at all the idea that they're spending time they could be using to do their jobs to make sure they (and those in their party) can keep them.

Of course, to fix this, we'd have to have people who care more about doing their jobs than keeping power and some way to cancel out the shouting power of money without gutting first ammendment rights. Near as I can tell, that would require an engaged citizenry that actively researches candidate positions and policy issues with the enthusiasm now reserved for professional athletes and pop stars. So... not anytime soon...
posted by namespan at 3:45 PM on October 23, 2002

The way it works is that Cheney must reimburse for campaign trips by paying the equivalent of a first class ticket. For example a first class Washington to Los Angeles flight is about $2000. On the other hand it costs about $100,000 to fire up Air Force Two and fly it across the country. It also does not include military fighter escorts, Secret Service, or staff required to execute his normal business while traveling. While Cheney pays $1000 a night for a 5-star hotel, the Secret Service buys up all the surrounding rooms at government expense.

Likewise Bush was required to reimburse Kenny Boy for all those trips on Lay's private jet during the presidential campaign although not at the rate of $10,000 per hour it costs keep a Gulfstream in the air. The difference amounts to an undeclared, though apparently legal, campaign contribution.

Don't believe it for a minute when Cheney says he pays his own way. It comes out of your pocket.
posted by JackFlash at 4:52 PM on October 23, 2002

did no one get my taint joke or was it just that bad?
posted by mcsweetie at 6:07 PM on October 23, 2002

did no one get my taint joke or was it just that bad?

'taint bad.
posted by plemeljr at 6:34 PM on October 23, 2002

This is a poorly chosen link. The linked article has almost no information on the costs -- OR reimbursements -- of Cheney's travels.

A situation entirely without precedent -- not.

There is more reimbursement than JackFlash lists: The accounting guidelines used by the White House were set in 1982, and Democrats benefited mightily from them during President Bill Clinton's marathon fundraising swings. Now it's the GOP's turn.

There are periodic introductions of legislation, but in fact there is voluntary reimbursement by both parties that sometimes goes beyond the statutory requirements. Meanwhile, Sen. Harry Reid would like a probe of Cheney's loopholes. As long as it isn't televised.

There are different rulesets -- some of it is FEC, some of it is merely administrative. The WH, assuming it is indeed following the same procedures as under Clinton, probably designates which portions of the trip are primarily political, comes up with a percentage, and that is billed back to the campaign committee (in this case, likely the RNC), in amounts ranging to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
posted by dhartung at 7:16 PM on October 23, 2002

Ahem. From Thursday's Washington Post article:

Scholars called Bush's partisan use of the government unprecedented for a midterm election, and said the aggressiveness and thoroughness of his politicking approached that of a presidential reelection campaign. The broad orchestration of executive branch activity to benefit campaigns was moved up to the midterm elections this year because of a confluence of history: a hairsbreadth margin of control in both chambers of Congress, the huge repercussions of tiny swings in a closely divided electorate, and the dawn of new campaign finance restrictions the day after the election.

"This full-court press by the whole administration has a very different feel from most midterms," said Stephen Hess, a Brookings Institution senior fellow in governmental studies. "This is a very political presidency, and I didn't expect that. When one seat can make the difference between divided and unified government, that's a big incentive."

posted by pmurray63 at 8:13 PM on October 23, 2002