Suppose you're a billionare Republican and you want to build a museum honoring the 1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York. Now suppose you don't want to spend your own money building it.What's a rich guy to do? Why, bribe his Senators to get the taxpayers to foot the bill - naturally!Days after a Senate committee approved $1 million for a Woodstock concert museum, the project's Republican billionaire backer and his family contributed $29,200 to help the Democrats who requested the money, Sens. Hillary It's neither illegal nor unusual for contributors to benefit from congressionally directed spending known as earmarks. But the timing of the June donations is grist for critics who see a link between legislative pet projects and campaign money. "If you don't help their campaign, they're not going to be as friendly with the earmarks next time," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who will seek to amend a spending bill this week to redirect the Woodstock money to educate homeless...(Read Full Post)