Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Rep. Renee Ellmers, the Tea Party candidate who beat Bob Etheridge, was one of a host of Republican freshmen members of Congress who hosted a lavish fundraising event at a Washington hotel yesterday, just before being sworn in today. Major lobby groups were asked to give $50,000 for the event’s full “VIP package.” Fox News highlights the disappointing hypocrisy of the pay-to-play scheming displayed by Ellmers and other legislators who had won Tea Party backing by attacking their opponents as out-of-touch servants of Washington special interests. Fox includes choice quotes from Public Campaign and Common Cause in its report, and notes that major Republican leaders stayed away from an event that “may undermine the message of austerity Republicans are trying to convey.”