If not for the SCLM...

Ah, remember when Tim Russert used to lovingly babble on and on about quids and pros and quos in bizarre language constructions...over Democrats of course. I see quids and pros and quos here:

Prominent Democrats and a consumer advocacy organization yesterday called on the Justice Department to investigate $56,500 in campaign contributions by a Kansas-based energy company that had sought a "seat at the table" as key Republicans worked out details of the Bush administration's energy bill.

The money went to political groups associated with GOP leaders, including Rep. Joe Barton (Tex.), who inserted a provision to exempt the company, Westar Energy Inc., from a troublesome federal regulation, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) The provision was later withdrawn after Westar became the subject of a federal investigation of the company's practices. In e-mails, company officials had written of a plan "for participation" in the legislation and had said that Barton and other GOP lawmakers had requested the contributions.

"These allegations should be fully investigated. If DeLay and other members of Congress did agree to sell political access, they should be prosecuted for violating bribery laws," said former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

"It is a serious federal crime for anyone to promise any public benefit 'provided for or made possible in a whole or in part by any act of Congress as consideration for any political activity or for the support of any candidate,' " Democratic Party Chairman Terence McAuliffe said yesterday in a letter to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, requesting an investigation.