Doolittle’s Very Special Cut

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The more you learn about this, the more brazen it seems.

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) pays his wife 15 cents of every dollar he raises for his campaign. It’s a direct line from contributors to Doolittle’s pocket.

Doolittle’s defense had been that the arrangement was “consistent within the industry” and “consistent with the history of Congressman Doolittle’s own campaigns.”

As for the industry, that’s been proven false – the fundraising industry in general rejects working on commission altogether and only one other member of Congress pays a family member via commission.

And as for Doolittle’s prior campaigns, Doolittle had paid a flat fee to fundraisers prior to hiring his wife for the jobt, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Doolittle is running out of excuses. He swears that the House ethics committee OK’d the arrangement, but won’t produce a copy of the opinion. We called the ethics committee on Friday to check that story, but didn’t get a call back. We’ll continue to try.

The pressure’s continued to mount on Doolittle – he can’t afford to simply repeat the same debunked justifications much longer.

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