THE SHANDEH OF BUNDLING BRIBES TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Chances are-- unless you're someone's grandma or my friend Jimmy D (a Scots-Irish techie who is incongruously fascinated with the Yiddish language)-- you don't know what the word shandeh means. But shandeh-- among other things, mostly like anger-- is what I've felt all week as the Senate Democrats weaseled around coming up with ethics reforms. Maybe the best definition is "shame."

And then, today-- just after the world finds out arch-Republicrook/disgraced former congressman and admitted bribe-taker Bob Ney was sentenced to a further 30 months in prison-- the New York Times informs us that the Senate actually did come up with something that seems worthwhile, at least on the surface.

Of all the new rules passed in Congress’s recent ethics overhauls, the most sweeping is a barely debated provision in a Senate bill passed Thursday night that could alter one of the most time-honored campaign fund-raising practices in Washington.

Rushing to complete its promised reform bill, the Senate adopted a measure that, for the first time, would require registered lobbyists to disclose not only the limited money they can donate to candidates personally but also the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars they raise from clients and friends and deliver as sheaves of checks-- a tradition known as bundling.

If signed into law, the measure could expose a potent tool that lobbyists use to gain access on Capitol Hill and even at the White House. Although currently invisible in campaign finance disclosures, bundling is a pillar of the modern campaign. The ability to deliver an envelope of checks-- each one in compliance with the federal limit--is one of the most valuable favors a lobbyist can provide a lawmaker. Bundling is also a major reason incumbents so easily outraise their challengers and so rarely lose their seats.

Now the caveat is that Bush-- who sat on his hands (and his veto pen) while the Republican Congress virtually mortgaged off our grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's futures so they could deliver sweet deals and grotesque pork to supporters and constituents-- is sudden;y threatening to veto everything. As far as Bush is concerned the House-passed (253-174 with 3 dozen Republicans joining the Democrats) stem cell research bill needs to be vetoed. As do the reduction in interest rates on college loans and the ending of billions of dollars in subsidies for the Big Oil companies who have donated so generously to Bush's and the Republicans' political campaigns. Even before the bill gets to Bush's desk certain K-Street-oriented Democrats in the House, some with great power like Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer, are bound to make common cause with their Republican counterparts, corrupt old school pols like Boehner and Blunt, to destroy the bill, perhaps saving Bush the trouble.

"As the money spent on presidential campaigns has swollen," points out the Times "candidates have formalized their networks of bundlers like a network marketing business. President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, for example, rewarded its fund-raisers with names like Pioneers, each of whom bundled at least $100,000, or Rangers, who bundled at least $200,000 apiece. Of the campaign’s more than 500 bundlers, Public Citizens, he ethics advocacy group, identified more than 60 prominent lobbyists. Members of Congress, however, usually prefer not to call attention to their connections on K Street, where many lobbyists have offices. Some lawmakers have especially close ties to just a few lobbyists who play a big role in their fund-raising, and calling attention to those relationships could focus new scrutiny on their votes. Given the reliance of many lawmakers on lobbyists as fund-raisers, the idea of requiring them to disclose their roles usually meets stiff resistance on Capitol Hill — all of it behind the scenes and almost none of it in public. House passage is far from assured, and its adoption by the Senate by a roll-call vote of 96 to 2 followed some backroom resistance among senators in both parties to allowing the idea to come up for a vote at all."


Cheered on by the worst and most corrupt of the GOP-- smiley-faced criminals in 3 piece suits like Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott-- Chuck Schumer tried to kill the bill behind the scenes and he practically declared war on Barack Obama for bringing it up. Schumer thought it might hurt the flow of money from businesses looking for favors to politicians looking for contributions "by placing an undue burden on potential bundlers." We went to the same high school in Flatbush and Schumer definitely knows what shandeh means. He doesn't seem to ever feel it however.