An analysis by the Washington Post of the latest financial disclosure data shows extravagance by both the GOP and the Dems.
Some examples:
• When RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele and colleagues took several dozen party donors on a retreat last August to Jackson Hole, Wyo., golf and tennis fees were paid, whitewater rafting and trout fishing guides were contracted, and limo drivers and photographers were hired.
• Last month, the RNC spent $260,476 on a single meeting in Hawaii and $14,937 on Dallas Cowboys football tickets. It also paid hefty cancellation fees to Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons hotels.
• The RNC's expenditures for "office supplies" in the period through February topped $773,000, according to a Post tally, including jelly beans for Steele's office and thousands of dollars' worth of liquor and wine.
• To finance an RNC event last November in Beverly Hills, Calif., the committee spent $717 on limousines, $11,076 at Spago restaurant and $4,583 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
• The RNC spent $4,266 at a Los Angeles sports ticket broker called StubHub, but listed the expense as "lodging," and $923 at the Little Door restaurant, but listed that expense as "office supplies."
• In December, the RNC also reported spending $496 for "meals" at Henri Bendel, a posh New York women's clothing store. Bendel's personnel say the store's restaurant closed four months earlier.
• The RNC also listed $282 in "meals" at a fly-fishing outfitter in Boca Grande, Fla., that has no restaurant. Wines the committee bought for $982 from a Vermont vineyard were listed as "office supplies," as were smaller amounts spent at PetSmart and a men's clothier.
To read the full Washington Post report
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