On Meet the Press yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Minority Leader John Boehner butted heads in a debate about what Congress would do about President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. It was a sort of classic talk-show exchange, and NBC highlights it on its website with a video excerpt headlined, "House leaders quibble over Iraq."

REP. BOEHNER: Steny, if you're not going to cut off troops -- cut off the funding for the troops in harm's way then why not allow Republicans to bring a resolution to the floor and let the House vote up or down on that resolution?

REP. HOYER: That's a good question, and you're going to have that opportunity. But initially...

REP. BOEHNER: When? When? When?

REP. HOYER: ...initially, the first thing we're going to do...

REP. BOEHNER: When? When?

REP. HOYER: Within the next 30, 45 days...

REP. BOEHNER: Well, see, that's the point--that's the point, Steny.

REP. HOYER: ...John. You got to have--well, John, you asked me a question.

REP. BOEHNER: You told your members...

REP. HOYER: Let me answer it. Let me answer it.

REP. BOEHNER: You told your members the other day...

REP. HOYER: John, let me answer the question.

REP. BOEHNER: ...this is the first step--this is the first step.

REP. HOYER: OK. I'm saying...

And so on. So how to bring some feel-good bipartisanship to the show? Ask Hoyer and Boehner about lobbyists, fundraising and ethics. Tim Russert read to them from a story in yesterday's New York Times, "Congress Finds Ways to Avoid Lobbyist Limits."

The 110th Congress opened with the passage of new rules intended to curb the influence of lobbyists by prohibiting them from treating lawmakers to meals, trips, stadium box seats or the discounted use of private jets.

...

The lobbyists and their employers typically end up paying for the events, but within the new rules.
Instead of picking up the lawmaker's tab, lobbyists pay a political fund-raising committee set up by the lawmaker. In turn, the committee pays the legislator's way.

Lobbyists and fund-raisers say such trips are becoming increasingly popular, partly as a quirky consequence of the new ethics rules.

Russert wanted to know what lawmakers would do about the loophole, saying:

It's just a way to circumvent a law you just passed.

The short answer is no, they will not move to close the loophole. It's just the way business is done, they said.

REP. BOEHNER: Tim, we, we raise political money to run campaigns. Democrats do it, and Republicans do it. When, when we put in the campaign finance laws, the Shays-Meehan bill a number of years ago, I voted against it because I thought it was nonsense. I think what we ought to do is we ought to have full disclosure, full disclosure of all of the money that we raise and how it is spent. And I think that sunlight is the best disinfectant. But there, there are a number of different ways that we go about raising those funds. Some of these are golf events, some of them are, are receptions, some of them are dinners.

REP. HOYER: Tim, let...

MR. RUSSERT: Will you -- will you try to close this loophole?

REP. HOYER: Tim, let me say that, in terms of this loophole, what we did when we came to the Congress, we adopted some ethics rules which are going to make sure that, first of all, you can't get meals, you can't live off lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Some members did that; some members are now out of Congress and in jail. You cannot have lobbyists or organizations pay for your travel on their private jets. We said that's not going to happen. You can't do it even with your own money. Now, as John pointed out, there is fund-raising. Fund-raisings usually have a reception, a dinner or an event of some type. That was not dealt with in those rules, and that'll be dealt with in the campaign finance rules. But, very frankly, the answer ultimately is if you're going to stop that, it's public financing. Neither the public nor the Congress is going to support public financing, so you're going to have fund-raising. So whatever way you do that is going to be subject to scrutiny. And I agree with John, public disclosure so the public knows what's going on is -- until you get the public financing -- the only way the public can check that.

REP. BOEHNER: There aren't any of my taxpayers who'll want their hard-earned tax money that they're paying to the government to be given to politicians so they can throw mud at each other.

REP. HOYER: I tend to agree with John that the public doesn't support that...

MR. RUSSERT: So this, this will...

REP. HOYER: ...for just those reasons.

MR. RUSSERT: This will go on?

REP. HOYER: Fund-raising's going to go on.

And so will the trips to Disneyland. The Times reported:

In just the last two months, lawmakers invited lobbyists to help pay for a catalog of outings: lavish birthday parties in a lawmaker's honor ($1,000 a lobbyist), martinis and margaritas at Washington restaurants (at least $1,000), a California wine-tasting tour (all donors welcome), hunting and fishing trips (typically $5,000), weekend golf tournaments ($2,500 and up), a Presidents' Day weekend at Disney World ($5,000), parties in South Beach in Miami ($5,000), concerts by the Who or Bob Seger ($2,500 for two seats), and even Broadway shows like "Mary Poppins" and "The Drowsy Chaperone" (also $2,500 for two).