Public Campaign alum Nancy Watzman is now heading up a new project at the Sunlight Foundation. There are plenty of places that Congress member's official activities get documented but what about all that glad-handing of lobbyists off the clock? Watzman's watching. She's tracking all the thousands of parties that congressional candidates are attending and collecting checks at, including the many swanky fêtes politicos will be attending around the upcoming party conventions.

The panic over the mortgage collapse and its wide-ranging consequences for the national and global economy led to Congress passing a $300 billion bailout plan for lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this week just as newspapers were putting the finishing touches on their sans-serif "Apocalypse" typesettings. How nice for Fannie and Freddie that help was forthcoming in the form of a taxpayer-financed buy-out. Guess those millions they've poured into lobbying and campaign contributions through the years have paid off.

On the recently passed FISA legislation, MapLight did the work for us and found that those who voted for the legislation granting retroactive immunity (and supported by the industry) have received nearly double the amount of money in campaign contributions from industry PACs than those who voted against.

With many in Washington still in shock over the death of Tim Russert last week, members of Congress took to the floor of the House to celebrate Russert's life by passing a resolution honoring him. Some chose to honor big oil.

Yesterday evening the Senate passed a watered down version of the energy bill that the House of Representatives passed last week. The oil and gas industry, and their allies in the Senate to whom they’ve given millions in campaign contributions, kept their billions in tax giveaways; while investment in alternative energy sources was deferred.

High profile candidates for public office are so crunched by the need to raise ever-larger sums of money to fund their campaigns that they're forking over millions to fundraising consultants who'll help collect the checks. As Christopher Cooper of the Wall Street Journal reports, the wider nets cast by these consultants are hauling in some questionable catch.