ROSKAM PAC: Peter's personal ATM from the Fat-Cat Corporations

One of the coolest benefits about being a member of Congress is the perk of setting up a "Leadership PAC" (Political Action Committee). They were created by Congress to legally allow Congressmen and Senators to acquire mountains of cash with virtually no public scrutiny as long as they're for political purposes other than their campaigns, such as "like-minded candidates and causes". In Illinois both Senators and ten of our eighteen Congressman have one. Only a few are very active with the second most being that of my Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6th). In the last two years he's vacuumed up a nifty million bucks, not from Joe Six-Pack but from the titans of industry like Comcast, Exelon, General Dynamics and the world's cheapest fixer of death causing manufacturing defects, General Motors. While Roskam is secretive about who and what causes he spends his Leadership Pac loot on, he's sure not shy about creating a catchy acronym, ROSKAM, which stands for Republican Operation to Secure and Keep A Majority. From a Channel Five investigative report we now know ROSKAM spent tens of thousands of dollars in the last two years on air travel, Utah sky trips and gifts for persons or groups who will forever remain mysterious. Fundraising costs money and ROSKAM is no exception, paying $320,000 in the same period to the obscure Townsend Group, based near the DC Beltway for PAC fundraising and PAC consulting. While ROSKAM's causes remain hidden, a few possibilities come to mind: keeping the minimum wage below subsistence level, keeping tens of millions from affordable health care, supporting the Military-Industrial Complex, allowing monopolistic consolidation of the telecommunications industry, and of course the old standby, reducing government regulation on industry that keeps us all safe. I may have trouble remembering what ROSKAM stands for but I've sure learned my 5 R's: ROSKAM'S RADICAL REPUBLICAN ROADMAP TO RUIN.