Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has come under scrutiny for his service on the board of Marriott International during a time when the company paid millions to settle charges of taking kickbacks and cheating clients. Given the close relationship Romney has to the Marriott family (Romney’s father was a close friend of the hotel chain’s founder J.

This week the Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a brief in federal court seeking to overturn a 1908 law (yes, 1908!) that banned corporations from giving directly to candidates. The RNC claims that due to the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v.

Public Campaign Action Fund issued a statement upon the news of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's huge haul of campaign cash in the 4th quarter.

From the statement: "...Governor Romney should release the names of those who are bundling hundreds of thousands of big money donations for his campaign. We demand that he provide the public with at least the most basic information about who he is relying on to fuel his campaign."

Our friends at the Sunlight Foundation came out with a new report yesterday: The One Percent of the One Percent, which shows that in the 2010 election cycle an overwhelming percentage of campaign contributions to candidates and political parties come from the upper 1% of

“you know, if it wasn't for special-interest groups coming to see us, we wouldn't have anything to do.”

That's a quote from Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) at the 2009 hearing on the Fair Elections Now Act, a bill that would bring a small-dollar matching system to Congress. Now Rep. Harper is leading an effort to eliminate the presidential public financing system.

Public Campaign Action Fund sent letters to 20 members of Congress yesterday requesting full disclosure of any benefits they’ve received from Delta Air Lines as Congress considers the long-term Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization legislation. Delta has been the only airline lobbying on the anti-union National Mediation Board Provision and has been pouring campaign contributions into members’ campaign coffers.

Right in his own back yard. Jefferson County, Alabama filed for bankruptcy yesterday, making it the largest municipality ever to do so. What does this have to with money and politics? It just so happens to be the home county of Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee.

Public Campaign Action Fund, along with Oil Change international, released a new report yesterday: "Payback Time? The Supercommittee & Fossil Fuel Subsidies." The report shows that the 12 members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or “supercommittee,” have received at least $4.2 million in campaign contributions from dirty energy interests lobbying to keep their wasteful taxpayer subsidies.

Yesterday, Congressman Joe Walsh told a constituent, "Don’t blame banks, and don’t blame the marketplace for the mess we’re in right now! I am tired of hearing that crap!”

Well, we're tired of our Congress being bought off by Wall Street. That's why we created a new website to let Rep. Walsh, and other Wall Street apologists like him, know what we're tired of.

House Oversight Committee Chairman, Rep. Darell Issa (R-Calif.), "is pushing for a federal probe of a New York City community organization based on a Fox News report that accused the organization of improperly aiding the Occupy Wall Street movement and linked the group to the now defunct ACORN," according to a story yesterday in the Huffington Post.