Bundling isn't just for puritans

Obama got in on the democrat's senate ethics reform package last week. The bill, introduced by Harry Reid, has the vague but hard-to-argue-against title "A bill to provide greater transparency in the legislative process." Obama has been heavily active in the crafting of the legislation, sponsoring or co-sponsoring several amendments to the bill. This Jan. 19 New York Times article by David Kirkpatrick ran with a great photograph that frames Obama as a leader of the ethics reform: looking stoic, principled and overwhelmingly leader-like, Obama faces the camera flanked by Charles Schumer and Russ Feingold.

In the accompanying article, Kirkpatrick discusses the easy passage Thursday of an amendment Obama co-sponsored along with Feingold that Kirkpatrick says "could alter one of the most time-honored campaign fund-raising practices in Washington." That practice: "bundling" by lobbyists. The amendment requires 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."

Messing with a politician's money is often dangerous, and apparently Obama isn't winning any friends in the Senate this week. Kirpatrick reports that Schumer delivered an "angry rebuke" to Obama during a run-in on the senate floor. Schumer apparently thinks Obama is taking the reform a little too far and may be handicapping legitimate fund-raising through red-tape. If you look at Schumer in the Times photo mentioned above, he doesn't exactly look pleased to be standing in Obama's shadow.

From a Jan. 19 Obama press release:

"This historic reform is an enormous step toward restoring the people's faith in government," Obama said. "It will ban the practice of lobbyists currying favor with politicians by giving them free meals and gifts, or by providing subsidized flights on corporate jets, and will require greater disclosure of the huge campaign contributions they collect from their friends and clients. I am very proud to have helped lead this fight with Senator Feingold, and am proud of what the Senate, under Senator Reid's leadership, has accomplished."