Of Course

Lisa Mascaro in the LA Times: Anti-tax group is top donor to super committee members.

The conservative Club for Growth and its members gave more money to lawmakers who are members of the new congressional "super committee" on debt than any other organization, PAC or group of individuals, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan MapLight.org.

Club for Growth, its members and employees, contributed more than $990,000 over the last decade, topping Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, EMILY's List and others.

The club has been an influential force in political campaigns, and helped propel its past president, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), to the Senate last fall. Toomey was named last week to the new super committee.

Over the next three months, the 12 members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction will be tasked with recommending at least $1.5 trillion in budget cuts, a difficult assignment, and one that also concentrates tremendous power in relatively few hands.

Lobbyists have already begun trying to influence the debate, as our Los Angeles Times colleagues wrote earlier this month.

Pat Toomey is, in fact, a former president of the Club for Growth, which, according to The Nation's John Nichols (via SourceWatch) is "an organization funded by extremely wealthy conservatives to carry out their budget-stripping goals [that] has been a key player in Republican Governor Scott Walker's move to take out [Wisconsin]'s organized workers."

I can only say "RIP Democracy" so many times, but I don't know what else to say.

[H/T to Shaker Julia.]