It's exciting to see that even with the Permanent Republican Majority defeated, the spirit of Jack Abramoff hasn't exited the Republican Party. So you don't like the outcome that our form of Constitutional government has produced on a policy matter near and dear to your heart? No problem - you can pay for what you want our government to do.

Indeed, GOP pundits seem to think that they can simply pull out their checkbooks and buy themselves an Ambassador to the United Nations. Evidence can be seen in a slick round-up of blog and pundit commentary by Salon's Alex Koppelman that says that if President Bush is forced to re-recess appoint John Bolton, forces outside our government should put up the money for his paycheck.

And if the administration holds out hope, then its supporters in the blogosphere certainly won't give up. Last week, Pamela Geller Oshry of the right-wing blog Atlas Shrugs, who has interviewed Bolton, tossed out the possibility of bloggers and like-minded thinkers raising money to pay Bolton's salary. (If the administration gave Bolton a second recess appointment, he could not, by law, be paid.)

Today, Hugh Hewitt jumps on the bandwagon, writing, "If Ambassador Bolton is refused an up-or-down vote by the Senate, I will join [Pajamas Media blogger Claudia Rosett] in the necessary fund-raising drive to collect and donate his salary to him."

For reference, what Rosett wrote was this:

"It’s enough to make a person want to suggest that if you really care about trying to do some good in the world via the UN, stop sending your kids out to collect for UNICEF, and start sending them out to collect donations to keep John Bolton in office."

Bake sales for Bolton, indeed!  What is extra hypocritical about all of this is that a UN procurement officer was recently arrested for having his home paid for by an Indian company to whom he steered UN services contracts, as "journalist-in-residence" Claudia Rosset herself documented.

This Abramoff-ian ideal is all over the Republican Party. Sure, it may have caused a number of Congressmen to go to jail(Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney), and resulted in others being convicted in the court of public opinion (Conrad Burns, Rick Santorum, Curt Weldon). But the corruption and rot at the heart of the current Republican Party institution isn't going to get swept away by mere voters and subpoenas.

Last spring, when the South Dakota abortion ban first reared its ugly head, it was reported that "anonymous" donors hoped to put up $1 million in private money to help the State of South Dakota fight out the expensive federal court case that was bound to emerge. At that time, James Ridgeway and I reported the following in the Village Voice:

Setting up such an unusual campaign warchest may give the appearance of impropriety. "If the legislative body thinks this is the right thing to challenge the Constitution of the U.S., they need to be willing to pay for the process," argued Kate Looby, the South Dakota State Director for Planned Parenthood. By expecting outside donors to finance the legal challenge, she added, "There's some element of buying government, and I really object to that."

"Clearly the state can use taxpayer dollars," Sarah Stoesz of Planned Parenthood said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they could devise a scheme to use these donated funds. What it does underscore, there is a belief that the taxpayers don't want to pay for this, and consequently the only way to get something done that the taxpayers don't want to pay for and that the politicians don't want to pay for, the only way to do this is to find a private, anonymous person who will effectively purchase public policy that is not taxpayer or voter supported."

And here we are again - government to the highest bidder, whether you've got a Democratic Majority or not.

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I plan to go on a fundraising drive of my own with my cohorts here at Bolton Watch to pay for Ambassador Bolton's trip out of town - perhaps on a one-way Chinatown bus back to DC. I think we'll have more success than they will in achieving that meager total.