This is rich!

President George W. Bush will make a short stop in Hartford’s northend Friday morning before zipping off in Marine One to Henry Kissinger’s home in Kent to raise money for Republican Sen. David Cappiello’s campaign against U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5.

Bush is expected to speak at the Northwest Boys and Girls Club on Nahum Drive around 9 a.m. Friday morning. The topic du jour for the president will be malaria, which fortunately is not one of the many problems that plague Hartford.

Unfortunately, none of the boys or girls will be there to greet him since the club doesn’t open until the afternoon. We know this because we used to run a program at the club. At the moment it’s unclear who his audience for the malaria speech will be.

Bush is coming to the NORTHEND section of Hartford to talk about Malaria? In case you're wondering what's really behind this...

But it also might have to do with the fact that Bush, by coming here for official business, becomes an affordable speaker at a campaign fundraiser the same day for congressional candidate David Cappiello. Since Bush will be in Connecticut anyway, the Cappiello campaign will have to pick up only a small share of the president's travel.

So the President makes up this B.S. official business nonsense just to save the Cappiello campaign from footing the entire travel bill...at the taxpayer's expense.

Matt over at My Left Nutmeg digs deeper and exposes how much the Cappiello-Bush connection are screwing the taxpayers as well as the hypocrisy of our state senator.

So what is the Cappiello campaign saving by having the U.S. taxpayer cover the cost of the event?

Even when the White House deems a trip as political, the cost to Bush's campaign is minimal. In such instances, the campaign must only pay the government the equivalent of a comparable first-class fare for each political traveler on each leg, Federal Election Commission guidelines say.

Usually, that means paying a few hundred or a few thousand dollars for the president and a handful of aides. It's a minuscule sum, compared to the $56,800-per-hour the Air Force estimates it costs to run Air Force One. [...]

The reimbursements do not cover the cargo planes that shuttle the president's limousines and helicopters to every event, or travel expenses of White House advance workers who lay the groundwork for the trips.

So let's pretend that the cargo plane at the right travels for free (baloney), that there are no added staff costs to shipping the President's entourage to Connecticut and back, and that it costs nothing for Air Force One to remain parked on the tarmac for a number of hours (ha ha).

Even if all of those things were true, it would cost roughly $120,000 for Air Force One's round trip. But we're not even talking about Cappiello dodging a $120K bill – the FEC apparently lets campaigns pay only for the cost of a plane ticket for each of the "political passengers" on a government-funded trip (according to this USA Today story which also supplied the above estimates.) That would be only a few thousand dollars, though the White House never lets the press know how many political travelers are on any given flight.

So what does Senator Cappiello -- one of only eight Senators to vote against the 2005 Campaign Finance Reform bill -- have to say about making the taxpayers pay for politicial campaigns? Fortunately, it's quite well documented:

Cappiello, 11/30/2005

Thank you, Mr. President. And through you, to Senator DeFronzo, I am not making the argument to be clear, that we are both going too far and not going far enough. I think we’re going too far with taking taxpayer dollars, yes.

We took, as a Republican caucus, a huge step, a very, very bold step, to go against what most of us believed to be one of the worst things we could ever do, and that is to get the taxpayers to pay for our campaign.

I was quoted in the paper, I think as saying, I hate the idea, and I still do. I have never hidden that fact at all.

Cappiello, 6/7/05

Please understand, I do not tonight, nor have I ever liked public financing of campaigns. I have never kept that a secret. I think they’re a big waste of time and taxpayer money, and I’m saying that right here and now.

Cappiello, 4/12/2000

Finally, this bill is anything -- anything but voluntary. Just because you or I, or anyone in this Chamber or in the House, or anywhere else that's running for office, decides we are voluntarily going to abide by these spending limits, the people whose tax dollars we are taking, yes, we are taking, are not volunteering their tax dollars.

In no other scenario in the state of Connecticut do we say to the taxpayer, you may earmark your tax dollars for whatever you want. Because if you could, I would send every dollar that I owe to my local education funds.

Because I know I'm not getting my share of ECS funding. None of my towns are. But, no, instead we're going to take the tax dollars and say, yes, I can earmark all of your tax dollars to this fund.

So, it is voluntary for us. It is not voluntary for the taxpayers.

Isn't this what kind of reform people back home are looking for? I have never once had anyone call me saying, please, please, please take my tax dollars and use it for your campaigns.

Donors can give up to $16,900 at this week's event – as it's for both the CT Republican Party and the Cappiello campaign – so it wouldn't be out of the question for them to cover the costs of bringing the President to Connecticut. After all, Cappiello obviously believes in his deepest heart of hearts that taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay for his campaign – so I'm sure his campaign will do the right thing here.

Right?

Yeah, right.