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than two weeks after the House created a subcommittee on terrorism
and homeland defense, the top Democratic member is using her new
perch as a fundraising tool, say some Republicans.
Yesterday,
California Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman participated in
a conference call with members of the New Democrat Network, an organization
that describes itself as "a political venture capital fund"
that "invests" in Democratic candidates. An email advertising
the event found its way to scores of GOP inboxes on Wednesday, as
exasperated Republicans kept forwarding it to one another. "I
can't believe they're doing this already," said one.
Harman press
secretary Ellia Thompson insists the conference call was not a fundraiser.
"Not one word about fundraising was mentioned," she said.
"It was an informative conference call for technology consultants.
They just wanted an update on what's happening. That's not to say
they aren't donors, but fundraising was not the purpose of the call."
The email advertising
the call, which was open only to financial supporters of the New
Democratic Network, reminds recipients that "[c]ontributions
to the New Democrat Network are not tax deductible."
"Both
parties sponsor conference calls like this," said one Republican
operative. "They're called donor-maintenance activities. There
may not have been a specific pitch for money, but that will come
in time and the skids will have been greased by events like this
one. The difference is that no Republican on this two-week-old committee
has tried to benefit from being on it in quite this way."
Red Baiting
Two days ago, we
wrote about how Harvard undergraduates aren't exactly brimming
with patriotic fervor when it comes to the war on terrorism. Now
it looks like some of them are positively unhelpful. Here's a recent
story from the The
Crimson, Harvard's student newspaper, on how one gay-rights
group is encouraging its members to lie to the Red Cross so that
they may circumvent blood-donor screenings.
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