The closest most of us will ever get to a fancy presidential fundraiser is the story we read about it in the newspaper, but even that kind of access is increasingly restricted, as this article in the New York Sun describes. What are they hiding? Afraid the great unwashed are going to mock the kind of Chardonnay they're pouring out for the big check writers?

As Senators John McCain and Barack Obama try to out-reform one another with their track-records on campaign finance, ethics, and lobbying they're also drawing the curtains much tighter around the exclusive parties where a small but powerful group hands over the checks that account for a majority of the money raised in this presidential race:

The level of access to presidential fund-raising at the moment is far more limited than in 2000 or 2004, according to reporters who covered those races. The 2000 cycle was the most accessible because the scandal over illegal foreign donations to the Democratic Party in 1996 prompted President Clinton and Vice President Gore to open up the process. From 1997 to 2000, cameras were allowed into most fund-raising events Messrs. Clinton and Gore held at hotels and similar venues, while a print reporter witnessed and an audio feed was provided of remarks at many of the same private homes that are now off-limits.