Lede of the Day

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Monika Bauerlein,
CEO

Dear Reader,

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December is make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising, and in "No Cute Headlines or Manipulative BS," we hope that giving it to you as matter-of-fact as we can will work to raise the $350,000 we need to raise this month. Donations make up 74 percent of our budget this year, and all online gifts will be matched and go twice as far until we hit our goal.

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Lots of people tied for this award today, but let’s give it to the Washington Post’s Dan Eggen:

The Republican National Committee gave nearly $2,000 to a Southern California GOP contributor for meal expenses at Voyeur West Hollywood, a lesbian-themed California nightclub that features topless dancers wearing horse-bits and other bondage gear, according to newly filed disclosure records.

Here’s what I don’t get. Everyone knows that party expenditures are reported to the FEC quarterly and made public. So it’s not like this stuff has any chance of staying private. And yet, every few months we see yet another idiotic expenditure like this. What’s up with these guys?

Not that I want to put “these guys” into the same class as RNC chairman Michael Steele. Has any party ever had such a feckless, embarrassing chairman in recent memory? He’s a real piece of work. I’m counting on the New York Post to come up with a good headline for this.