The Mask Is Off: Washington Post Now A Subsidiary Of The Democratic Party

If you're a lobbyist seeking unfettered, non-confrontational access to upper level Obama administration officials, the Washington Post can help - if you're willing to pony up big bucks.

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

Update: The Washington Post confirms that is now in the pimp business.

Update 2: The Post has been shamed into canceling.

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.

"Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. "This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren't vetted. They didn't represent at all what we were attempting to do. We're not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom."

Translation: We're really sorry that we got caught.

Update 3: The White House claims that it knows nothing about it. Are we really supposed to believe that the Washington Post was issuing invitations to an event when it hadn't yet confirmed that Obama Administration officials would be there?

White House officials said privately Thursday that the administration had no idea that the Post was peddling access to its officials.

We'll find out how honest the Post is if it pronounces BS on the Obama Administration. I think that Obama was cultivating the Post the same way that it has been hand feeding the New York Times in exchange for favorable coverage.

Pay No Attention To That Lobbyist Behind The Curtain

Democrats, with the eager cooperation of the state run media, are happy to reap the PR from shunning dirty lobbyist money, but they aren't about to forgo the cash. They'll just take it through the back door, knowing full well that the media will avert their eyes. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

“Please note that the Friday Issues Conference is NOT subject to lobbyist restrictions, though the event is intended for personal contributions only,” a finance official from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wrote in an e-mail sent to lobbyists Tuesday and obtained by POLITICO, bolding the entire sentence to underscore the clarification. “The Issues Conference is separate from the DSCC/DCCC events with President Obama.”

One prominent Democratic lobbyist unhappy with the situation described it vividly: “It’s almost like the ugly girl that you want to call late at night — but don’t want to be seen with on a date.”

Barack Obama: This Is Not The Joe Biden I Knew

Barack Hussein Obama is against lobbyist cash. Joe Biden rolls in it.

The Center for Responsive Politics has a thorough analysis of Sen. Joe Biden's campaign cash intake now that

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has selected him as his running mate.

The industry that has given Biden the most cash has been lawyers/law firms ($6,567,404) followed by real estate ($1,297,690). Pro-Israel groups are the 8th biggest contributing industry.

Obama may decry lobbyist cash (or at least federal lobbyist cash), but Biden has taken $344,400 from lobbyists since 1997 -- making lobbyists the 10th biggest contributing industry.

That seems a direct contradiction of the Obama message.

Gee! Yah think?