I was browsing through TPM Muckraker this morning and saw the article “DIY Muckraking Gets Boost” and read that the Sunlight Foundation has been spreading around some grant money to fund a slew of new open government database-driven websites.

Paul Kiel writes…

Over at OMBWatch, they’ve just launched FedSpending.org, a searchable database of federal grants and contracts. It’s similar to the website recently mandated by the Coburn-Obama law, though that website will only be available in 2008. Curious what contracts add up to Lockheed Martin’s $24,779,249,050 this year? You can find out there.

At the Center for Responsive Politics, you can get a rundown of the net worth of every member of Congress and the administration, as well as breakdowns from their financial disclosure statements.

The group also launched a new travel database, where you see the sponsored trips taken by each member of Congress in the past two years.

This, after Vermont’s own Zephyr Teachout of the Sunlight Foundation was doing a great job yesterday on the Young Turks discussing some of the new organization’s (apparently funded in part by George Soros’ Open Society Institute… hey, for once someone actually is being funded by Soros!) initiatives, including their Congress in 30 Seconds ad contest and their Punch Clock campaign.

The ad contest asks people to mix their own ads about government accountability and the Punch Clock deal offers money to citizens who can get members of Congress or candidates for Congress to agree to post their daily schedules.

This is all for a good cause, since, right now, it’s so hard to find out what exactly these folks are up to.

But, if you look at the Center for Responsive Politics’ Personal Financial Disclosure database — looking just at the top 20 wealthiest members of the Senate — I think it’s clear that, for at least some of them, stewarding their vast fortunes must account for a big chunk of the day.

Rank

Name

Minimum Net Worth

Maximum Net Worth

1

Herb Kohl (D-Wis)

$269,098,030

$284,549,005

2

John Kerry (D-Mass)

$164,741,510

$234,262,099

3

Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa)

$78,150,023

$101,579,003

4

Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif)

$43,343,464

$98,660,021

5

Lincoln D. Chafee (R-RI)

$41,153,105

$64,096,019

6

Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ)

$38,198,170

$90,733,019

7

John McCain (R-Ariz)

$25,071,142

$38,043,014

8

Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass)

$19,189,049

$93,043,004

9

Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)

$13,508,152

$49,829,007

10

Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore)

$13,018,672

$62,448,641

11

Bill Frist (R-Tenn)

$11,667,041

$41,735,006

12

Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn)

$11,539,060

$43,671,003

13

Mike DeWine (R-Ohio)

$11,491,441

$47,418,001

14

Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

$10,080,005

$50,200,000

15

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

$8,780,208

$37,243,002

16

Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala)

$8,413,018

$30,095,003

17

John W. Warner (R-Va)

$7,900,260

$14,119,148

18

Johnny Isakson (R-Ga)

$7,676,099

$21,689,003

19

Ben Nelson (D-Neb)

$6,654,059

$18,943,003

20

Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

$4,867,072

$10,010,001

All I can say is… Um… Man, these folks are loaded. And, believe me, this is not a Republican-only issue.

I mean, I know Frist has money, but Tom Harkin? How the hell is Mr. Just-Plain-Folks-and-the-Conscience-of-Iowa worth between 5 and 10 million dollars?

I am definitely in the wrong line of work…

Or am I?

Cuz, on a related note, VDB has a tough assessment of the encroachment of Big Money into the worlds of the A-list bloggers of our day.

P.B. writes…

…this morning, I drop into Daily Kos, only to find that the banner is now rubbing elbows with the Chevron logo (many thanks to NJ [that ’s me, by the way] for technical assistance):

daily kos homepage

Yes, it’s Chevron talking about alternative energy. And yes, maybe in some way, that necessary dialogue — even though born of shameless New York City marketing pow-wows — requires the engagement of the netroots.

But it couldn’t be any clearer what Chevron is attempting, at the most basic level: a sort of frictionless synergy between Pretty Big Netroots and Really Big Oil.

When Unilever buys Ben&Jerry’s Ice Cream and then — after a decent interval — tells Ben and Jerry to down-size the social mission or hit the highway, we have a name for that deft corporate maneuvering, a name based on the metaphor of white-wash: we call it green-washing, and its common as dirt these days.

What to call it when Chevron speaks to you with the community-friendly Kos logo in the background?

“Net-washing” will do until a better term comes along.

Of course, Kos, Marshall, and Duncan Black are not at McCain levels of wealth and influence… Yet…

But, I think Baruth is right to draw our attention to the possibilty of increasing levels of influence of large corporate entities on the leading supposedly independent major netroots ventures.

I certainly don’t blame those folks for wanting to run profitable businesses. And, I’m quite sure I’d have a lot of trouble turning down a large “donation” from Chevron if I were in the same position. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s not cause for concern.

So, kudos to Baruth (should that be “barudos?”) for not letting the left off the hook in the age-old discussion about the dangers of the confluence of money and power.