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Congressional rules state that lobbyists cannot give members gifts worth more than $100. But the rule is offset by a loophole that allows legislators to accept airfare, hotel rooms and meals if attending a legislative conference, visiting a company plant or taking part in a celebrity golf or tennis tournament. A spouse or an aide can go along; children somehow slip in. Common Cause found that in 1987 Congressmen took eleven years' worth of free vacations courtesy of this proviso.
Congressmen can also take in cash directly by giving speeches for honorariums -- a misnomer, since little honor is involved. Consider the $2,000 the Oshkosh Truck Corp. paid each of six members of the House Armed Services Committee on April 1, 1987, for coming to breakfast. The eggs had barely been digested when, a few hours later, an Armed Services subcommittee voted to purchase 500 more trucks from Oshkosh than the Army wanted.
Members of the House and Senate took in more than $9 million in honorariums last year. The more powerful the legislators, the more invitations come their way. Freshman Representatives without a good committee assignment hardly get invited at all, but Dan Rostenkowski, whose committee writes the tax bills, collected the most money of all, $222,500. Jim Wright so easily surpassed the $34,500 that legislators are allowed to keep for personal use that he allegedly used sales of his book to get around the limit.
Members can also easily talk their way around the $100 cap on gifts from a - lobbyist. Former Tennessee Congressman Bill Boner argued successfully that a camper given to him by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association was not a gift because he used it on a fact-finding trip. Senator Orrin Hatch received a $7,500 gem-encrusted gold ring inscribed WITH LOVE FROM ALI after the Utah Republican introduced a bill to allow Muhammad Ali and others similarly situated to sue the Government over wrongful draft-evasion convictions. Hatch laughed off any notion that the ring was tied to the bill. "((Ali)) said he would beat me up if I didn't take it."
But $7,500 rings and $2,000 for a plant walk-through almost seem laughable next to the huge sums that can be amassed through campaign contributions. Even though more than 90% of congressional incumbents are re-elected, almost all against token opposition, a bulging campaign treasury is useful to have anyway: it scares away potential challengers, and members elected before 1980 can keep the money when they leave, as a kind of IRA with no strings attached.
The very best part about campaign contributions is that they don't have to be spent on campaigns. Colorado's Democratic Senator Tim Wirth used his campaign fund to fly himself and his wife to the 1987 Super Bowl. Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii used $14,053 for restaurant meals -- some of which, according to receipts submitted, curiously took place at Circuit City, an electronics-equipment store. North Carolina's Democratic Congressman Charles Rose bought a Jeep. South Dakota's Democratic Senator Larry Pressler had a Canada goose stuffed for $225.75, because he felt it would promote goose hunting in his state.