by Michael Patrick

Created on: April 12, 2009   Last Updated: April 14, 2009

The most exclusive club on earth is the United States Congress. Membership confers international recognition, prestige, honor and a paragraph or more in the permanent record of the nation's government. Thus fundraising for the next election is paramount to that man or woman who sincerely (or by sheer megalomania and deep pockets) feels the call to influence historical issues and great events.

Competition for a seat in the US Senate and House of Representatives is mighty. All candidates begin with a noble dream of public service for their constituencies. Then they become the men and women who control how the coin of the realm will be spent each year. They decide on bridges to nowhere in their states and aid to foreign nations. They co-sign the check for wars and national defense and earmarks for that new library or school at home.

The power of such an office is dazzling and comes only to those who have the charisma, the determination, the time, and above all, the money to become one of the 535 men and women in Congress who ponder and determine the destiny of the world's most powerful nation. Presidents may come and go every four or eight years but members of Congress remain for decades - if they can. No one wants to be the Senator or Representative who serves only one term. Whether noble or venal, and one can cite examples of both, retaining the power to affect the fate of our nation can be all encompassing and staying in office as a member of The Club an overwhelming personal objective.

Cynics claim that politicians have only two objectives: to get elected and to get reelected. And in virtually every US election in modern times, the candidate who spends the most money wins.

Contests for seats in the House and Senate have become high-stakes brawls, in many cases with no holds barred. Just twenty years ago, an election for a seat in the House of Representatives averaged in the thousands for the winning candidate. Today it is a million. In Minnesota, candidates Al Franken and Norm Coleman have spent a combined twenty-three million in an unresolved battle for the state's second Senate seat.

Two things are wrong with this picture. One, what is so compelling about a seat in the Senate that makes two men waste so much donor money on vote recounts and lawyers filing more law suits contesting election results? And, two, how is it sensible to spend those tens of millions of dollars when so many Minnesotans are out of work, drive on bad roads, and need reliable utilities and

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