Posted on 07/27/2002 8:02:25 AM PDT by vannrox
By Andrew Miga / Boston Herald
Sunday, July 14, 2002
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats, after railing last week against the rising tide of corporate abuses, Friday hopped aboard a fleet of company jets for a secret Nantucket weekend retreat with top party donors.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a leading Senate health-care reformer who this week will launch a major fight on prescription drug coverage, flew aboard health insurance giant AFLAC's company jet, an aide confirmed.
Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Bay State colleague Sen. John F. Kerry are among the 16 senators and 250 big-ticket contributors - mostly corporate executives and lobbyists - schmoozing at Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee events on the island.
The timing of this year's Nantucket event could pose a public relations disaster for Democrats, who have sharply criticized the GOP's cozy ties to business as the wave of corporate scandals intensified recently.
The annual weekend - which includes tennis, golf, sailing, cocktails, and parties with lavish meals - provides wealthy donors with extraordinary personal access to lawmakers.
Only Democrats giving more than $20,000 to the party were invited.
Kerry, one of the few lawmakers who flew commercial to Nantucket, denied any suggestion of Democratic hypocrisy.
"Senator Kerry is helping to elect Democrats who will actually vote to curb corporate abuses instead of just talking about it," said Kerry spokeswoman Kelley Benander.
Just before departing Capitol Hill Friday, Senate Democrats voted to shut off debate on legislation cracking down on corporate accounting abuses.
Kerry hosted a Friday night dinner with his wife, Teresa Heinz, at their Brant Point mansion. Kennedy, who attended an issues briefing breakfast with top donors yesterday before heading to his family's Hyannisport compound, hosted an annual clambake.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) are among the Nantucket participants.
Some of America's largest corporations - Federal Express, Bell South Corp., Eli Lily and AFLAC - provided jets for the Nantucket getaway at a cost of nearly $50,000. Corporate executives and lobbyists were aboard.
The firms all employ large-scale Washington lobbying operations.
Party officials said the cost of the D.C.-Nantucket flights will be considered an in-kind soft-money contribution to the DSCC.
So-called "soft money" contributions (checks more than $1,000 made to political parties) will be curbed next year under the landmark campaign finance reform bill Congress approved.
Kennedy, who has used the AFLAC jet in the past, occasionally uses corporate jets for travel. Kerry used his wife's private jet for a recent presidential exploratory trip to Iowa.
Lawmakers must reimburse companies the equivalent of commercial first-class airfare for use of the jets, whose costs for a single trip can run to tens of thousands of dollars.
Kerry, meanwhile, tomorrow will announce he's raised $1.4 million since March 30 for a campaign account balance of $3.4 million. His Citizen Soldier political action committee raised $250,000 for the second quarter.
Kerry seems to work very hard at raising such piddling amounts when all he has to do is leech off his wife.
Yep. We are all anxiously awaiting the front page, top of the fold coverage by the New York Slime courtesy of Adam Clymer.
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