(1)
The Republican Party is not only head-over-heels in bed with lobbyists that it is not legally married to, but it no longer even cares to draw a veil over who is doing what and to whom. They’ve long since figured out that there is no political downside to flaunting their unnatural relations with lobbyists.

The latest in-your-face behavior involves a public exhibition of lobbyists tucking money into the Republican Party’s garter belt, in ways that are clearly obscene, but may fall just short of meeting the public standards definition of obscenity:

Campaign finance experts said the two main Republican campaign committees are breaking new ground — and treading close to the legal line — in soliciting corporate contributions to help throw an election night party.

The lobbying and law firm Akin Gump, together with the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, are circulating the solicitation, asking between $2,500 and $10,000 for levels of sponsorship of the event at the posh rooftop bar at the W Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The event seeks “underwriters” rather than contributors, and the solicitation reads at the bottom: “This is not a fundraising event. This reception is being held in compliance with applicable federal ethics rules.”

That’s all it takes. You can go out and raise money to finance a clearly political event. All you have to do is make sure that you
a) formally label your donors something else
b) self-certify that what you’re doing is not fundraising, that everything is perfectly legal and ethical.

Not everyone is impressed, of course:

Meredith McGehee, the Policy Director at the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan group that favors finance regulation and is chaired by John McCain‘s campaign lawyer, said she’s never seen an invitation to an event that listed both party committees and corporations as hosts.
[...]
“Because of the soft money limits and because there are party committees involved, parties should have an abundance of caution in ensuring they comply with the law, and they seem to have found a clever lawyer who figured out this is permissible because it’s not a fundraiser,” said McGehee. “It’s a little too cute by half.”

Another prominent campaign finance lawyer unconnected to the event asked not to be quoted by name, but emailed: “The NRSC and NRCC are raising money to pay for this event. That sounds like contributions to me and soft money is illegal.”

But there aren’t going to be any consequences to the Republican Party from these people being unimpressed. McGehee herself concedes the point:

But McGehee said the Federal Elections Commission would be unlikely to attempt to enforce anything in this gray area, and this may simply be a pioneering new loophole in the Swiss cheese-like regulatory regime.

So why should the Republican Party care? It may look like a duck, and it may waddle and it may quack. As long as there are not going to be any proceedings to see if it meets the legal definition of a duck, it ain’t no duck at all.

(2)
Here’s how flagrant the GOP’s political prostitution has become. They have no problem putting stuff like this in writing:

With the majority in the balance, donors can pay between $10,000 and $2,500 for benefits beginning with “prominent signage” and special “VIP” access.

Also available are “other benefits as determined by underwriter’s needs.”

Put up the money, guys. And be sure to let us know what you need, okay?

(3)
The NSRC, meanwhile, is trying to hide behind the skirts of this fiction: that it’s really not their event at all, they are just one of a large number of co-hosts.

And NRSC Communications Director Brian Walsh defended the committee’s role.

“The NRSC is not soliciting funds or in any way raising money for this event. We’ve simply paid our allocable share to co-host an election night event and celebrate what we hope to be a great night for Republicans,” he said.

And the NRSC isn’t even one of the big-bucks co-hosts. They’re just a $5,000-level co-host.

All $5,000-level co-hosts are not equal, though. Some are co-hosts with benefits. The “underwriting” solicitation somehow gives marquee billing to a lousy $5,000 co-host.