>>What i found humerous about the talkingpointsmemo story was that a Texas GOP rep did not get sworn in when he was supposed to. Instead he was at a fundraiser for another GOP rep on the grounds of the capital (that is a no no). Instead, they both "took" the oath while watching a TV that was broadcasting the real swearing in. Ironically, their fubar shut down a house rules committee meeting.
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>This was above the fold in my local daily. The other rep is the newly re-elected guy from the next district over, Mike Fitzpatrick. That is, he served a term or two and then lost his seat in '06. (The guy he lost to and now beat is Patrick Murphy, the first Iraq war vet in Congress and one of the leaders of the effort to repeal DADT.)
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>The paper says that Fitzpatrick says it wasn't a fundraiser, just a reception for supporters. The confusion, they say, is that his office did arrange a bus for people to make the trip and charged them $30 for it. The paper didn't address the question of whether $30 was more or less the cost, but frankly, that sounds about right to me. (And I don't like Fitzpatrick at all.)
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>Pretty stupid, though, to leave the house floor before taking the oath. What's really funny is that the day before, the paper had a story about how wonderful it was for him to take the oath in front of his supporters. <g>
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>Tamar

I saw the 'bus fee' defense. But the "invite" apparently had more about contributions on it.

The title of the event -- "Mike Fitzpatrick's Swearing In Celebration" -- makes it clear that the event in question is the celebration of the swearing-in at the Capitol, not the bus trip. The invitation asks for a minimum of $30 but allows the contributor to give more. "Federal Law requires us to report the name, mailing address, occupation, and name of employer for each individual whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 in an election cycle," reads the invite, indicating that it was indeed a campaign event.

But the invite page has been updated.

https://client.campaignfinancial.com/swearingin