Sex, Campaign Money, and Cleaning Up Politics

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Don't like how our politics are paid for? Some people who agree are pushing what I can only call the Lysistrata campaign finance reform plan. In the ancient Greek comedy, women withheld sex from their soldier husbands until they agreed to end an ongoing war. Substitute sex for money and you have what the folks over at Change Congress are pushing: that donors go "on strike," refusing to give their money to pols until a campaign finance overhaul is passed (specifically, they favor a system whereby people limiting themselves to small donations would get matching government funds).

They say that they've gotten no-contribution pledges from people who gave $400,000 to federal candidates in the last cycle. You can see the list of who got that cash here.

BTW: On Facebook? You can keep up with Thomas Jefferson Street blog postings through Facebook's Networked Blogs.

• Read more by Robert Schlesinger.
• Read more from the Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
• Read more about campaign finance.