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Dan Eggan writes in the Washington Post today about how tea party favorites like Francisco “Quico” Canseco are spending their first few days in Washington DC:

After winning election with an anti-Washington battle cry, Canseco and other incoming Republican freshmen have rapidly embraced the capital’s culture of big-money fundraisers, according to new campaign-finance reports and other records.

….The aggressive fundraising efforts underscore the financial pressures facing new members of Congress even before they take their seats. The contributions also represent a symbolic challenge for the Republican class of 2010, many of whom gained office by running against the ways of official Washington and monied interests.

I’m not exactly scandalized by this, but it’s still a warning sign to tea partiers everywhere: guys like Canseco will support your hot button issues for precisely as long as they align with the interests of the guys who are bankrolling him. As soon as those interests diverge, you’ll be left in a ditch. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

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