Chief executive officers will only attend coffees with other CEOs. The star attraction must be a principal, even if it's the president. The tricky part is that when the money is big, the favors can get real specific. By some perverse logic, this current disaster is the result of real progress. In 1988, there were about 34 real House races.
Members now compete for money and the small pool of donors who have it.
In business, competition breeds innovation. In politics, it breeds connivance. Such are the perils of progress. But instead of fixing the problem, official Washington is obsessed with circumventing it. Not with suitcases stuffed with cash but by creating an elaborate and phony parallel universe.