We Always Knew The Senate Was A Cozy Club But This Is Ridiculous

Close watchers were shocked this week when Senator Kit Bond failed to hold a podium pounding press conference to decry voter fraud when poll were kept open an extra hour in Iraq, as he did in 2000 when the same thing happened in Missouri.

But I guess we now know why. He must have been busy preparing for the fallout of his wife getting caught up in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's latest scandal.

According to the AP:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's
AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns providing the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful's nonprofit.

The returns for World of Hope Inc., obtained by The Associated Press, also show the charity raised the lion's share of its $4.4 million from just 18 sources. They gave between $97,950 and $267,735 each to help fund Frist's efforts to fight AIDS.

The tax forms, filed nine months after they were first due, do not identify the 18 major donors by name.

One could fairly wonder why you would need to pay half a million in fundraising fees to simply talk to a dozen and a half donors.

More AP:

That included $456,125 in consulting fees to two firms run by Frist's
longtime political fundraiser, Linus Catignani. One is jointly run by
Linda Bond, the wife of Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo.

Kent Cooper, the FEC's former public disclosure chief had this to say:

Cooper said the consulting fees were "excessively high" and the fact
that they were "paid to primarily political consultants also raises
questions about the long-range strategic benefits for the 2008
presidential race."

I suspect we'll be hearing alot more about this in days to come.