Posted on 7/16/2002, 9:26:06 AM by kattracks
They've been calling for a crackdown on corporate abuses, but that didn't stop Democratic senators from flying corporate jets from Washington to Nantucket for a weekend schmoozefest with 250 campaign contributors.
Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer were among the 16 senators who descended on the Massachusetts isle to forage for donations. A rep for Schumer tells us that he flew on U.S. Airways rather than avail himself of the Learjets and Gulfstreams offered by firms including BellSouth, FedEx and Eli Lilly. Clinton spokeswoman Karen Dunn said Hillary "flew on a corporate plane with [Senate Majority Leader] Tom Daschle that was arranged by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee."
Campaign Committee spokeswoman Tovah Ravitz-Meehan said the cost of using the jets — which the committee put at just over $44,000 for the weekend — will be counted as an in-kind soft-money contribution.
Last week, the Democrats voted to limit debate on legislation targeting corporate accounting abuses. Ravitz-Meehan insisted that "there was no tie between the vote last week and the event. The event was booked for months."
The Democratic mouthpiece pointed out that the National Republican Senatorial Committee will have a similar event at the Greenbriar resort in West Virginia this weekend.
Tom Fitton, president of the conservative gadfly group Judicial Watch, called the Nantucket junketeering "the height of sleaze. If not outright illegal, it's unethical. They're in bed with the businesses that they're purporting to hold accountable."
One of those who opened his house for the annual weekend event was Sen. John Kerry, who also flew commercial. The presidential aspirant and his wife, Teresa Heinz, threw a dinner Friday night at Brant Point, their Nantucket mansion. Heinz was a gracious hostess, though she drew the line at giving the crowd access to her bathrooms, claims a source. Guests were directed to portable toilets on the lawn.
A Kerry spokesman explained, "With one restroom available, brand new air-conditioned, portable toilets were brought in for one reason only: to make our guests more comfortable knowing we had an overflow crowd, no pun intended."
JW is back to being a "conservative gadfly group" now that they're attacking DemocRATS again.
How weird is that?!
Ms Heinz-Forbes-Kerry also had two guys with coal shovels on duty to clean up overflow. : > ()
hehehe
no access to her bathrooms? LOL Guests in my home are welcome to use all the bathrooms. What are the D'rats afraid of?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.